“I AM not a still photographer, and I won’t pretend to be at this stage in my career,” the cinematographer Roger Deakins writes in the introduction to his new book Byways. It’s a book that rather refutes his claim

A collection of black and white photographs that date as far back as 1969, they offer a left-handed (or should that be left-eyed?) vision of Deakins’s craft. A two-times Oscar winner (for Blade Runner 2049 and First World War film 2017), the Englishman is best known for his cinematography for the Coen Brothers and Sam Mendes. But he had originally thought of becoming a photographer.

The teenage Deakins spent his weekends visiting the English seaside looking for images. It’s a habit he has continued to the present day. The result, he hopes, is a record of a time and a place. It is also a record of a singular eye.

Byways by Roger A Deakins is published by Damiani, damianieditore.com, at £45. Photograph © Roger A Deakins