Apiary

Apiary is a nocturnal body of work made in Lewes, South East England, centred on the rituals and gatherings surrounding Guy Fawkes’ Night. The celebration functions less as a subject than as a backdrop — a space in which longer-held concerns around power, belief, and collective behaviour can surface.

Rather than documenting folklore or spectacle, the photographs attend to atmosphere, proximity, and tension. Working close to crowds, firelight, and gesture, the images collapse the distance between individual and collective, hovering between celebration and threat, order and disorder.

At its core, Apiary reflects on democracy as something fragile rather than fixed — sustained through ritual, dissent, and shared belief, yet always vulnerable to erosion. Made during a decade of political and social unease, the work considers how quickly cohesion can strain, and how easily symbols of freedom can tip into volatility.

In this sense, Apiary follows on from Bastard Countryside, shifting from the uneasy boundary between humanity and nature to the uneasy boundary between order and collapse.

Published as a monograph by Loose Joints, the book is available to purchase here.