Stephen Lewis looks at Whitby through fresh eyes after reading a new book of photographs and poems.

One hundred and ninety nine is the number of steps that wind up the headland at Whitby to St Mary's Church. In Whitby One Nine Nine, photographer Richard Jemison and writer Chris Firth use that as a starting point to explore the seaside town.

This is the first of three books that seek to capture "the obvious, as well as the unexpected, beauty, history and culture of Whitby".

It succeeds unreservedly. In this sumptuous, limited-edition volume, 66 of Richard's photographs of the old town sit opposite 66 original poems by Chris.

It is the photographs that catch the eye first. These are no conventional photographs of Whitby - Richard has used to the full his artist's eye to capture the unexpected: seagulls perched on a railing by the harbour; a little girl darkly silhouetted against the silver sands, her dog trotting at her heels; St Mary's Church at misty twilight, its old stone walls lit by fog-shrouded beams of light, a gravestone leaning drunkenly.

"Photographs are taken in a second," writes photographer Lord Crathorne, the Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire, in a foreword. "But the most successful are those which transcend the moment and glimpse the eternal."

Some of these photos do that, and gradually, as the eye lingers on them, you draw in Chris Firth's words, too - with a shock of recognition.

Some, Chris says, were poems that he had already written. Others were written in response to Richard's photos. All, however, manage to capture and celebrate in words the spirit of the photograph they sit opposite, enriching and deepening it.

Just one example from the book: a photo of two bikers leaning against a railing, backs to the camera, gazing out over Whitby harbour. They are sharing, in a companionable silence somehow caught on camera, a moment of profound reflection and thought. Chris's poem, reflections, perfectly captures the mood.

"How many waves to wear away the cliffs?

"How many shoes to wear away street stones?

"How much North wind to grind away the hills?

"How many breaths to wear us out this world?....

"It's certainty that all will come to pass,

"As sure as if we look, we're in the glass."

A marvellous book. You may never look at Whitby in the same way again.

Updated: 16:42 Friday, December 09, 2005