Photographers, the English Calendar Custom and the Lure of the Wyrd

The English Calendar Custom, almost always performative and often processional, offers the interested photographer ideal subject matter. The specificity of occurrence, the challenge of capturing the essence on the day lest having to wait a whole year for another opportunity, and the sense of urgency to record this slice of living history before it is either corrupted by external forces or dies out entirely, has long attracted photographers. The range of photographic responses and motivations vary from person to person and across time. From those who seek to document and preserve for personal archive, public record or family album, to those employed by folklorists and collectors to illustrate their research and publications. Some may wish to capitalise on public fascination with bizarre expressions of Englishness through editorial sales while others look for a suitable vehicle through which to express their particular photographic vision. Whatever their motivation those photographing these events partake in a ritualised viewing, and their photographs take their place in the history of images of the same event across time. This paper uses the authors own unpublished documentation ‘Another England’ undertaken in the 1990s as a starting point for an exploration of photography’s relationship with the English Calendar Custom through the work of a range of practitioners including Sir Benjamin Stone, D.R. Rowe, Tony Ray Jones, Homer Sykes, Sara Hannant and others.