To bee, or not to be?

Jo Nightingale discovers a photography project with a real buzz about it

You’d have to have had your head in, well, a beehive recently not to have heard about the decline of the bee population, and its disastrous potential for all living things, given bees’ role as plant pollinators at the base of the food chain. And it’s just this cause that’s been worrying photographer Ed Swinden of late. His latest project, Beekeeper: to Serve the Queen, points a camera at the men and women battling to sustain Britain’s honeybee. On display now in Heaton Park’s Dower House, the home of Manchester’s Beekeepers Association, Swinden’s show consists of 12 almost life-sized portraits of sombre beekeepers dressed for duty.

Resembling angelic germ-warfare combatants in their protective outfits, each keeper’s portrait is accompanied by their response to the question, “What does the future hold?”  A smaller, accompanying image shows them relaxing in civvies. ‘The subject matter is a metaphor for a crisis in society,’ explains Swinden. ‘By contrasting the beekeepers’ formal, service-driven roles with their casual, everyday selves I wanted to flag up the importance of social duty or responsibility, as well as individuality.’

With around 44,000 beekeepers in the UK, and a growing wave of younger, urban keepers, Swinden was also keen to illustrate the range of people who’ve made looking after bees a big part of their lives. ‘The Beekeepers’ Association helped me raise awareness of the project, and I eventually photographed about 40 volunteers across the country,’ he says.

Shooting between January and March, short days and hazardous weather gave Swinden a few headaches. But the fact that the bees were hibernating allowed him to spend time with each of his subjects and capture informal shots over cups of tea. ‘It was great to be able to explain the project, and get to know the keepers a little,’ he says.  ‘Many are encouragingly positive about the future.’

The tea-break’s over now for the photographer, whose images of last year’s Manchester Pride are also currently being exhibited at the Royal Exchange. A former journalist, he undertakes commercial photography for organisations such as the BBC, Manchester City Council and The University of Manchester, while his artwork has recently been shown at Salford’s Chapman Gallery and Chorlton Arts Festival.

Swinden sees the beekeeper series as a response to some of this earlier work, which captured dehumanising cityscapes and symbolic road lines. ‘My earlier projects suggested that individuals are tiny automata trapped in a complex structure, with fixed routes and regulations we can hardly think outside of,’ he says. ‘But talking to my fiancée’s grandfather, who kept bees, made me question some of my ideas. I decided to examine the idea of society as a metaphorical hive, with its own workers and queen.’ It all comes together in his book, Inside the Hive, which contrasts Swinden’s beekeepers with his previous work. “My aim is to illustrate both perspectives,’ he says. ‘I’d like people to make up their own mind.’

Beekeeper: to Serve the Queen can be seen online or, until 25 July, in person at The Dower House, Heaton Park (closed Mons). Free entry. ‘Inside the Hive’ is available at www.blurb.com/bookstore. All images courtesy and copyright Ed Swinden.

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