James Pearson Howes

I’m loving the intrinsic folkiness of James Pearson Howes‘ photography work at the moment. His unique choice of subject matter in each series is an acid commentary on the absurd twists and turns of modern British culture. I’m not sure if the work is supposed to be a ongoing catalogue of present day folk circles or if it is supposed to sit quietly next to the ‘folk theme’ in general as a sort of plastic-wrapped partner.

Either way, if doesn’t really matter. There’s no oily over-processing or style pandering here and James is clearly skilled at making his subject feel like they can be themselves. I especially love the ‘E9 Hong Kong-style’  lads looking every bit the Kings of their post-code empires that they probably are.

James has got a nice little photography book of his ‘British Folk’ series for sale on his website for under tenner, which I might just bag. He also runs a blog called Powerbastard. Cracking.