Uncertain Densities: Poems for Diane Arbus pays hommage to Diane Arbus (1923–1971), the American photographer best known for her compelling, often disturbing, portraits of people from the edges of society. In 1960 Esquire published Arbus’s first photo-essay, in which she effectively juxtaposed privilege and squalor in New York City. Thereafter she made a living as a freelance photographer and photography instructor. Iain Britton's poems snap their own compelling portraits of hers in minimalist lyric verse. Uncertain Densities is published in a limited edition of 65 copies in tribute to 65 years since Diane Arbus's first solo exhibition in New York City.

¶ Can we—and should we—take a step back and rethink our relationship with the visual world? It is this question that New Zealand poet Iain Britton addresses in his new chapbook Uncertain Densities. “She fascinated me when I first started looking at her pictures,” Britton explained at a recent launch event in Pembroke College, Cambridge. Indeed, the poems — each one no longer than a few lines — feel like photographs. Britton writes in all lowercase, forgoes punctuation in favour of wide blank spaces between phrases, and numbers his poems instead of titling them. The effect is a structural simplicity that allows the imagery to take centre stage. And imagery is where Britton shines: from orchards full of trapped moons to foetuses sleeping in pools of pink champagne, the scenes in his poems are at once bizarre and beautiful. — Keziah Cho, THE INDIEPENDENT 

¶ Iain Britton’s poems are strange attractors, exhilirating, resistant, challenging, taking you from the unexpected to the unexpectable. They are transformational, they locate the uncanny within the quotidian; space/time travellers made out of sight and of sound, breath and memory, with the change of the oceanic persistent beneath their curious rhythms. — Martin Edmond

In Iain Britton's own words...

¶ I don’t think of boundaries when it comes to poetry. Although I am aware of city differences [am I an Aukland or ‘everywhere’ poet?], I don’t particularly espouse to any of them. Good poetry should cross borders and touch hearts regardless.

¶ I have always been fascinated by mysteries, enigmas, manâ’s place on earth and the interminable questions we keep asking, but I have not always been satisfied with the answers or convinced about our findings. In my poetry, I don’t really care about going on fact-finding missions. Truth is in the interpretation and the personal fulfilment a poem gives to the reader. Mystery provides an opportunity to go on an individual journey, to explore fantasies, to uncover new layers within the imagination. For me, a poem paints a picture and because we are inquisitive animals, it encourages us intellectually to delve deeper wherever we go.