News From Nowhere
I wanted to see what it would feel like to leave society, so I did.
News from Nowhere is a body of work made in intentional communities around the UK. The communities are often off-grid, environmentally conscious and explore aspects of spirituality through connection to nature.
The work's title is borrowed from William Morris' 1890 fantasy novel in which the protagonist wakes from a dream to find himself in a utopian agrarian society based on common ownership and democratic control of the means of production.
The project combines photographs made over the past three years living and working in communities in England, Wales and Scotland to create a portrait of the possibility of life outside of the oppressive structures of contemporary capitalism, and the desire for community, connection to nature and equality.
Inspired by Morris' own philosophy, in particular his belief in the radical potential of beauty, News from Nowhere sees beauty as a tool to activate and empower the viewer, encouraging its audience to consider the power they hold to effect change; to quote David Graeber: “the ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.
Full portfolio available on request.
The Fruits and The Land
"You are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the land to no one" -Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The Fruits and The Land is a film about Brithdir Mawr, a thirty year long intentional community in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. As the community prepares for its winter solstice celebrations and nears the final year of its lease questions about its future arise. Through a mixture of the poetic and ethnographic documentary forms we come to understand the intimate physical and spiritual relationship between members of the community, their animals and the land they inhabit.
45 minute HD video available on request.