Beacon

Is a photographic retelling of the story of Thomas Jones, a 5-year-old boy who went missing for 29 days in Bannau Brycheiniog (formerly the ‘Brecon Beacons’) before his body being found back in the early 20th century. The project was made with the cooperation of local museums who gave access to copies of original newspaper reports, historical artefacts related to the case - some authentic, some props - as well as a dramatic film retelling of the story made in 1980.

The project seamlessly interweaves images with an array of pre-existing archival material such as newspapers, photographs and fictional dramatic re-creation - deliberately mixing fact and fiction, past and present, myth and reality as it presents, expands and re-presents the various facts and theories surrounding this story.

The images in the project record places and things central to the story, depict ideas inspired by it, and capture other moments and discoveries along the way. These images intentionally reference a traditional documentary style in order to explore the effect this has on the evidential reading of the photograph, as well as to further blend fact and fiction to test how we construct and interpret narrative through photographs.