Midsummer Morris Dancers and their wonderful goat Caprihorn: Best photo by Hollie Fernando | Drawing

MOrris was a male-dominated sport, but in 1975 the Morris Federation was formed specifically to allow women to participate. The old organization, the Morris Ring, did not allow groups with women as members until 2018yet today women account for more than half of Morris dancers in Britain. As soon as I heard about Mr. Morris, the part of all the women in the picture, I wanted to shoot their picture. I wanted to celebrate the evolution of this traditional dance form by focusing on the young women who honor it and reinvent it.

When they appeared on stage at the Brits With the band Wet Leg, who I was working with at the time, I thought, “It has to be! It was very difficult to discourage the band, because there are so many of them, but when we discussed the idea they were all happy with the idea of ​​filming a summer movie on Rodborough Common on their rehearsal evening. It’s a great place – a green space on their doorstep in Stroud.”

Mr. Morris is an artist and makes his own clothes, which he changes all the time, but I wanted to create our own unique look for this shoot. I have a friend who walks around Brighton in Victorian nightgowns and bloomers and I borrowed pieces from her, and a friend of Bwana’s stylist came and fitted the clothes on the day. It was a big, beautiful partnership.

They often paint their faces before performing. Because Emma, ​​the dark-haired member second from the right in the picture, is a florist, I suggested a flower arrangement instead. He brought flowers and I just let him do his thing. That’s the founder of Mr. Alex Merry under the moss face, which was stuck with eyelash glue. Another member, Rhia, later wrote a story inspired by it called The Mossy Babber, which seems to have taken place centuries ago. It was a great example of how storytelling works – I like to think that Moss-Face is becoming a regular character and part of the local tradition.

While they were preparing, I ran quickly to see where we could shoot. There is less space above the common where they dance most of the time, so I recorded them rehearsing, dressed like this. Later I took some pictures on the mountain below, where I was able to take a wonderful picture of them, how these were taken. The goat in the background is Caprihorn, one of Boss’s monster characters – the costume comes from an old documentary that shows a group of musicians in animal costumes.

I’m very happy to use this method, when it comes to creating ideas and creating stories. One of the things that inspired me to create a storytelling style was my father taking me to Tate Britain when I was a child. He loved the Raphaelites, and that style has been very helpful in my work. I still shoot medium format film and manual prints whenever possible – there’s a certain green tone to it that is very difficult to capture in a digital file.

At the end of the shoot we went down the hill to the pub where Mr. Morris used to hang out. They gave me a snack where you put a fried egg in a packet of crisps and smash it all together. It was the first time I had experienced this – it was like entering a magical world.

While looking for the name of the project, I came across the old word “hoydenish”, which is used to describe women who are restless, restless and free. I like to promote empowerment and strong themes in my work related to women, so it was a perfect fit. I really enjoyed hanging out with this group and I want to start a women’s group in Brighton. I have a lot of friends who would love it – I just need to make sure I find time to do it justice.

Hollie Fernando’s CV

Born: London, 1991
Above: Winning the Taylor Wessing Committee. Shooting Rami Malek for the Guardian. And going to Mexico to shoot Levi’s summer collection, which was my dream since I was 16!
Top tips: Shoot first, search later. Don’t over think or over plan a project because it will come later, so just get out there and start taking pictures.