Essentially English

Reviews / Votes

Forty years into his career as a photographer, Ward has completed a labour of love: a photographic record of England. His collection is an eclectic mix of images but, as he himself says, "almost always fun and occasionally blissful" - an affectionate portrayal of the many ways in which the English enjoy themselves. They are be-hatted at Ascot, in rough country clothes at the annual sheep show in the Yorkshire Dales, crowding Brighton Beach for DJ Fatboy Slim's seafront revel, riding out the racehorses on the training gallops at Middleham, judging the shepherd's crooks at a Lake District show, playing the brass band at a village f te in Gloucestershire. Ward has captured in stunning, memorable detail an England that flourishes even as many urban dwellers might have thought such pursuits had disappeared.