In the summers of 2017 and 2019, artist Tom Hunter set up a makeshift photo booth at Glastonbury festival. In the spirit of the first Summer of Love in the late 1960s, Hunter asked the festival goers to reimagine the liberation of that era and embrace the freedom of nudity. A selection of the resulting portraits will go on display for the first in the exhibition Where Have All The Flowers Gone at Martin Parr Foundation to coincide with Glastonbury Festival 2022.
Hunter is known for his social documentary projects investigating alternative communities, contemporary music and experimental cultures in London and across Europe. This series was inspired by his mum, Sheelagh Hunter’s photographs taken on a Box Brownie - a selection of which will be included in the exhibition - and her stories of the Summer of Love at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970. Hunter aimed to create a contemporary vision of today’s festival culture whilst evoking a nostalgic, historical view of that first Summer of Love.
The small photobooth at Glastonbury was constructed of MDF sheets and Hunter used a medium format film camera in the classical tradition of the 19th Century portrait photographers. In 2017 he was based in the Shangri-La field and was assisted by Hanna Wiebe who ventured into the crowds to invite participants to the booth. Two years later he returned with Claire Loussouam to portray those who frequented the Lost Horizon sauna—a nudist area in the Green Fields of the festival. This time, in keeping with the spirit and environment of the project, both Hunter and Loussouam were naked themselves. By the act of setting up the camera and tripod in the field, freshly steamed festival goers were driven to the camera by curiosity.
I’ve never made photographs naked before, but it had to be done in the Lost Horizons sauna field, where everyone else was naked, it would have been unnatural to be wearing clothes. The only drawback was the harsh Somerset sun, which meant no mad dogs and English men at midday.’ - Tom Hunter
‘We have seen many photographs taken at Glastonbury festival over the years, but none as memorable as Tom Hunter’s nude portraits. They are literally quite revealing, but also convey a great sense of dignity, pride and joy in those they depict.’ – Martin Parr
Events
The exhibition opening party will be held on 30 June 2022 - more information to follow.
Book
A book of the first year of the project, 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone' was published in 2017 by Hartmann Projects, accompanied by text and images by Hunter’s parents.
Tom Hunter is an artist using photography and film, living and working in East London. He is Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of East London. Hunter has earned several awards during his career, including the Rose Award for Photography at the Royal Academy, London.
Hunter graduated from the London College of Printing in 1994 with his work ‘The Ghetto’, which is now on permanent display at the Museum of London. He studied for his MA at the Royal College of Art, where, in 1996, he was awarded the Photography Prize by Fuji Film for his series ‘Travellers’. In 1998 ‘Woman Reading a Possession Order’ from his series ‘Persons Unknown’, won the Photographic Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. In 2006 Hunter became the only artist to have a solo photography show at the National Gallery, London with his series ‘Living in Hell and Other Stories’.
Related
Comments
Nobody has commented on this post yet, why not send us your thoughts and be the first?
