Diverse images, proud people: a portrait of the real Britain

TO OUTSIDERS, Britain must sometimes seem like a fractious family, its members constantly bickering about who they are and what they want to be.

For decades, the nation seems to have been caught up in a permanent argument over its identity and what kind of country we want to live in – arguments that have only intensified in recent years. Now one book tries to answer that question and its conclusion is unexpectedly delightful.

This Is Britain is no academic tome, however. Its pages are not filled with the dry pontification’s of sociologists, anthropologists and political pundits.

Instead, it brings together hundreds of photographs submitted by ordinary people, each one attempting to capture an aspect of their daily lives, from dawn till dusk, in an attempt to create a visual record of what it means to be British today. The result is a vibrant, chaotic, bewilderingly varied picture of life in 2017, sometimes frustrating, often beautiful, at times harsh and just as frequently tender – just like the country itself.

What could be as British after all, than the cover image, showing an elderly couple in military uniform enjoying an ice cream at the Tramways Museum in Crich, Derbyshire?

The answer, of course, is all the other images in the book, each one typical of the UK in their own particular way, from the little girl engrossed in her smartphone in a café in London’s Chinatown to a calf sale in Farndale, North Yorkshire.

Each image was selected by Rankin, the internationally renowned photographer, who waded through the tens of thousands of photographs.

He chose some 300 photos, spread across 14 chapters reflecting the span of a day in the life of the country, such as waking up, work, coffee break, family time and an evening out.

This Is Britain is published by Photobox – the publisher of personalised photo books – in aid of BBC Children in Need, with the aim of raising £250,000.

Christian Woolfenden, Photobox’s managing director, said: “Rarely has the subject of national identity been as conflicted as it is at the moment and it’s against that backdrop that we thought we’d hold a mirror up to ourselves to find an honest answer to the question ‘who are we?’.

“We sought to find the answer in the diversity of our nation and the pictures which people themselves took reflect that. What shines through is our positivity; finding beauty even in difficult subjects.”