Geo-photographer: Jamie Hawkesworth

Encapsulating the full diversity of the people of the British Isles is an impossible task. Which is why, when photographer Jamie Hawkesworth set out with his camera, he did so not to create a portrait of the countries he visited, but simply to explore them. His new book, The British Isles, is an archive of 13 years spent wandering around towns, villages and remote islands. A day would start at the local train station; the destination picked at random. ‘All I wanted to do,’ says Hawkesworth, ‘was to go to a place that I didn’t know about, and see what I came across. The spirit of the book is really to go out and explore the country.’

Principally an in-demand fashion photographer for magazines such as Vogue, this long-form work helped Hawkesworth keep an eye out for people’s unique sense of character and their subtle gestures, movements and clothing. He always asked for his subjects’ permission before photographing them, with a success rate of about 40 per cent. ‘A lot of the people would say no, but I would keep walking until I found the next person that I found interesting. It’s hard to articulate, but sometimes people would just be looking brilliant. Everyone’s got something going on.’ The images in The British Isles celebrate individuality and, in turn, each viewer might spot a scene that reflects their own perception of the country today, be it freshly bought fish and chips lathered in ketchup; seaside towns in varied states of construction; no-nonsense slogans on hardware shop windows; or the awkwardness of youth. ‘I almost want to say that finding a definition for British identity isn’t important to the work. It’s just about individual people living here.’

Unconstrained by a need to define it, Hawkesworth found a diverse land in which he could celebrate the simple and everyday. ‘It was simply, “let’s see what Hartlepool is about, or Hastings, or South Shields”,’ he says. ‘The work comes down to everyday things. I think photography gives you an excuse to be in that normality, but to really appreciate it.’