NOT A PERIOD DRAMA: A PERSONAL ENGLAND

England has an identity crisis. The most powerful nation in Great Britain doesn’t seem to know itself. The English gave up their Englishness in order to become British, the rulers of the British Empire. In the middle of the twentieth century, they lost even that surrogate for identity and have been wandering ever since through the imperial debris that litters their homeland, unable to say who they are. Scotland and Wales have asserted their independence and national pride and have a distinctiveness as legitimate fellow occupants of the island. After the devolution of power and the recent vote to leave the EU, England is left struggling to know itself at home, in Europe and globally. England may have a crisis of identity resulting from a failure to come to terms with the loss of empire and the end of its own exceptionalism but for me, it still fascinates and surprises. England has a love of the countryside, an obsession with the outdoors and a deep and lasting relationship with theatre and music, all with a surreal sense of humour and a love of the ridiculous. These photographs are my representation of what England is to me and the people I surround myself with, using social memory, romanticism and character rather than nostalgic history, nationalism and period drama.