Tribes of England: David Wright
Training his lens on a plethora of subcultures, photographer David Wright’s Tribes of England captures those enjoying the liberation of choice…
In an infamous exchange, Lady Susan Hussey – a British noblewoman who served as ‘Woman of the Bedchamber’ and, later, ‘Lady of the Household’ to the Royal Family – asked Ngozi Fulani: “Where are you from? Where are you really from?” Fulani, who was born in London and is the founder of the charity Sistah Space, could not be identified by Lady Hussey as being from England but instead as being from ‘somewhere else’. This encounter is at the crux of what is perceived as so-called Englishness. It seems that for Hussey, Englishness has particular recognisable signifiers which include name, dress, values and culture. To some, the traits of Englishness are inherently obvious, others less so, and this marks a division in the nation’s views on belonging and associated rights.
Nationhood has become a central concern in this age of globalisation where identities often mediated by social media seemingly meld into homogeneity. Looking out for difference, the photographer David Wright (b. 1955) has been working on a set of portfolios titled Modern Tribes of England. Following in the historical tradition of the German photographer August Sander, who sought to capture and categorise a nation, Wright portrays different contemporary groups in his survey of self-identifying English types. His extensive approach includes: circus performers, climate change activists, Goths, gypsy Roma, Mods, Morris dancers, pagans, Punks, travelling showmen, and urban agriculturalists.
During the 1970s, Wright trained at the London College of Printing (currently the University of the Arts London). His tutors were Jorge Lewinski, known for his portraits of artists, and the documentarian Homer Sykes. The latter’s book, Once a Year: Some Traditional British Customs (first published in 1977), is surely relevant as Sykes continued the legacy of the nineteenth-century photographer and politician Benjamin Stone to record the nation’s customs and traditions. The influence of these precedents is evident in Wright’s work and, perhaps, aims to pick up from where these others lead. Wright’s experience as a young student in London coincided with the emergence of Punk, which can be noted as an early influence on his own concern with subcultures. Following his studies in Photography, Wright studied Media Theory at postgraduate level; this provides another layer of understanding to his projects.
The exhibition Tribes of England at Chester Pride’s Rainbow Tea Rooms brings together a small selection of photographs from several of Wright’s Modern Tribes of England series. The subjects featured in this show include a clown, a Punk, a Mod, a Pearly King, a railway enthusiast and reenactors. The commonality of these figures is that the characters they become entails the act of consciously dressing-up. For the clown, the costume is a key component of his employment as a circus performer – this is a uniform that has tradition attached. Likewise, there is a traditional lineage for the Pearly King that dates back to the late nineteenth century when the London road sweeper Henry Croft adorned his suit with mother-of-pearl buttons. The Mod and the Punk have a more recent history and are products of post Second World War British pop culture; for them style, arguably, is the paramount signifier. Fantasists, enthusiasts and reenactors literally take on the clothes of someone else; these subcultures can be highly subjective and self-conscious but at the same time conscious of the other whose identity they share. For all of these actors there is the liberation of choice: all choose who they want to be, as opposed to their identities being enforced.
What would Lady Hussey make of these fellow citizens? The question: “Where are you from? Where are you really from?” becomes ‘Who are you? Who are you really?’ All of Wright’s subjects might answer ‘I am English but …’ This qualifier has become a core issue in our society. To some it may seem a challenge, even a rejection; to many it will be a necessity; and to others it is a choice. Largely, but with some exceptions, it is this last option that Wright documents. His tribes are exercising their rights to be who they want to be and to define their own values. This is notable with his series of climate change activists and urban agriculturalists (not included in this exhibition but viewable of Wright’s website). The inclusion of these ‘tribes’ in Wright’s survey connects with current concerns. Englishness moves beyond the rigidity of borders to encompass international citizenship.
David Wright’s own tribe is the photographic collective f8 Documentary. The group began in 2020 with five members; currently there are eighteen members including Patrick Ward, Barry Lewis, John Walmsley, David Collyer, Janine Wiedel, John Blumer and Homer Sykes. This collective focuses on documentary photography in Britain, a topic that has recently had several revivals with important exhibitions, including TATE Britain’s current The 80s: Photographing Britain. The work of these photographers, and guests, is regularly printed in the magazine f8 Documentary, published by Fistful of Books. Hussey’s question – rooted in xenophobia – reverberates as though she is actually asking it of herself rather than Ngozi Fulani; it is a question addressed by Wright with a more nuanced lens.
Stephen Clarke is Senior Lecturer in Art and Design: Critical and Contextual Studies University of Chester
Curated by Stephen Clarke with wall text by Hannah Harry
Visit: Tribes of England: David Wright, at The Rainbow Tea Rooms, 28 Bridge St, Chester CH1 1NQ, is open until February 2025. FREE ENTRY
