A Week at Green Man – 2025

It can often feel like adult relationships have been reduced to a predictable yet complicated series of negotiations—an endless consultation of calendars and pre-planning. Weeks of scheduling required to carve out a couple of hours for a hurried lunch in between other obligations. Don’t get me wrong, ‘dinner and drinks’ can be great, and I understand that we all have responsibilities, but somewhere along the way it feels like we lost something. When did we forget how to play? What happened to the chaos, the adventure, the simplicity and pleasure in being together without a specifically defined purpose? Where are the moments bigger than a restaurant booking; those shared experiences that create stories, forge bonds, and which ultimately remind us that friendship can be more than just polite routine?

For me at least, the recent Green Man Festival was one notable exception. A full week in the depths of Wales with some of my favourite people – stitched together by music, sun, and cider. We shared precious supplies and queued up to pour buckets of water over each other’s heads before donning our colourful outfits – a flock of peacocks ready to unleash our inner three year olds, and dance well into the night. Time stretched and vision blurred as the intensity of our surroundings dialled up, and we hugged one another – embracing the beauty of the glow and after-glow. Every laugh, every stumble, every shared glance carried weight – an unspoken understanding that nobody would be lost or left behind. This was a week that mattered, not for the bands or the beer, but as a magical reminder of just how wild, yet also deep and caring that real friendships can be.

The pictures in this post were shot with an Olympus Pen FT half-frame camera and 38mm f2.8 pancake lens – on a combination of Kodak UltraMax 400, Harman Phoenix 200, and Fuji Neopan 1600 35mm film. As a photographer I wish that I had captured more, or framed moments better, but the truth is that this week wasn’t about documentation; it was about being present, experiencing things. The few shots I did get are just fragments; glimpses of the trust, joy, and connection that defined a rare, special week. One that really meant something.