The Stay Behinds

This collection of on-the-hoof portraits was shot at Glastonbury Festival in July 2019. Together they represent the sizeable army of people who stay behind to take apart the festival after all the wing-wearers, shoulder-sitters and flag-wavers are back at work. These are the people who break huge stages, take down fairgrounds, pick thousands of bits of litter, pack up eco gardens… and in one case, counsel straggling festival-goers struggling to come back to reality. Many of the ‘stay behinds’ remain on site for weeks, and in some cases, for months. In taking pictures of this hard-working and unsung group, I used the chance to opportunity to explore a stick-based wireless lighting set up I’ve been developing that washes a warm spotlight onto each subject.