Homer Sykes
Burry Man Britain, England, UK, 1971
Vintage Gelatin Silver Print
24 x 30.5 cms
9 7/16 x 12 1/16 ins
Series: Once a Year. Rare Vintage Photographs
9828
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artistExhibitions
Creating the Countryside: 1600-2017, Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, 2017 (This print)Creating the Countryside: 1600-2017, Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, 18 March - 18 June 2017
'Radical Landscapes', Tate Liverpool, 4 May – 4-September 2022
'Radical Landscapes', Mead Gallery, 19 October 2022 - 7 January 2023
Literature
Ed. Verity Elson & Rosemary Shirley, Creating the Countryside: The Rural Idyll Past and Present, Paul Holberton Publishing, 2017, p.38Rosemary Shirley, Rural Modernity, Everyday Life and Visual Culture, Ashgate, 2015, p.134
Signed on the reverse. The Burry Man South Queensferry Lothian Scotland. UK. With his helpers in a public house taking a break from his perambulations of the town's boundaries. Second...
Signed on the reverse.
The Burry Man South Queensferry Lothian Scotland. UK. With his helpers in a public house taking a break from his perambulations of the town's boundaries. Second Friday in August 1971.
There are reports from the nineteenth century of the Burry Man appearing in other Scottish locations when the fishing harvest was failing. The twentieth century Burry Man makes his perambulations of the town's boundary on the date preceding the annual Ferry Fair. It is thought that this was once a fishing fertility rite, although these days it is associated with the local borough or burgh. The fair has been in existence since 1687, and now takes place during the second week in August. By 1971 nothing of what was once an eight day fair remained save the road race, run for a traditional pair of black boots.
Arguably the most iconic image from Once a Year, Homer Sykes originally debated if he should include the image in the book.
Homer Sykes recalled, I remember debating whether I was going to include this picture, because the person on the left is just too close. I spent hours agonising, because visually it was the right picture, but I kind of got in too close. It is like if you are a writer and you put in a full stop instead of a semicolon. How you form your sentence and whether a paragraph works the way you want it to or not. I like formality and spacing. These are the things that really worried me and they still give me concern today. However that's the picture.
This photograph was included in the book by Homer Sykes Once a Year: Some Traditional British Customs (Gordon Fraser, 1977)
British Photography / The Hyman Collection
The Burry Man South Queensferry Lothian Scotland. UK. With his helpers in a public house taking a break from his perambulations of the town's boundaries. Second Friday in August 1971.
There are reports from the nineteenth century of the Burry Man appearing in other Scottish locations when the fishing harvest was failing. The twentieth century Burry Man makes his perambulations of the town's boundary on the date preceding the annual Ferry Fair. It is thought that this was once a fishing fertility rite, although these days it is associated with the local borough or burgh. The fair has been in existence since 1687, and now takes place during the second week in August. By 1971 nothing of what was once an eight day fair remained save the road race, run for a traditional pair of black boots.
Arguably the most iconic image from Once a Year, Homer Sykes originally debated if he should include the image in the book.
Homer Sykes recalled, I remember debating whether I was going to include this picture, because the person on the left is just too close. I spent hours agonising, because visually it was the right picture, but I kind of got in too close. It is like if you are a writer and you put in a full stop instead of a semicolon. How you form your sentence and whether a paragraph works the way you want it to or not. I like formality and spacing. These are the things that really worried me and they still give me concern today. However that's the picture.
This photograph was included in the book by Homer Sykes Once a Year: Some Traditional British Customs (Gordon Fraser, 1977)
British Photography / The Hyman Collection