The “Flags”

This photography project documents the English flag that currently is displayed in public areas in a village where I live. Once ordinary markers of place or identity, these flags have become dominant visual elements in the everyday landscape. Shaping how streets, homes and communal areas are experienced. Rather than symbols of celebration or pride, their repeated presence creates an atmosphere of tension and quite unease. Through observation, my work focuses on how these flags intersect with daily life. They are hanging above shops, lining roads and overlooking empty spaces. Often appearing detached from the people, they are “meant” to represent. I explore how familiar surroundings can be subtly transformed by political imagery, altering how safe and welcoming a place feels. By documenting these displays without dramatization, I hope the photographs invite viewers to consider how power, ideology and threat can exist in plain sight, embedded within in everyday village life.