Tag: archives

For more than fifteen years, Holly Lynton has explored the intersections of faith, history, labour and landscape across rural communities in the United States. Her ongoing project Beyond the Bounds (2019–present) examines places shaped by moments of spiritual awakening—from towns founded by psychics in Florida to healing springs in South Carolina. Once centres of ecstatic belief and religious revival, these sites are now often quiet communities where faith persists not through dramatic revelation, but in the rhythms of everyday life.

Through a slow, collaborative approach, Lynton traces the enduring role of faith in American culture, revealing how landscapes continue to bear the imprint of successive religious movements. Her photographs consider the communities that sought refuge to practise their beliefs, often in opposition to the societies they left behind. At a time when religion remains deeply woven into public life in the United States, Beyond the Bounds explores how histories of faith continue to shape the nation’s landscapes, communities and ways of life. 

Holly Lynton was the winner of the Bristol Photo Festival Open Call in 2024 in collaboration with Hapax Magazine.

Biography

Working across photography, writing and archival research, Holly Lynton documents contemporary rituals rooted in history, examining how cultural memory shapes the ways images are seen and understood. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; the Yale University Art Gallery; and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Jersey. Her first monograph, Bare Handed, was published by L’Artiere Edizioni in 2022. Lynton has received numerous awards, including an Aaron Siskind Individual Photographer’s Fellowship, the Archive of Documentary Arts Collection Award at Duke University, and a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship. Her work is held in major public collections, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Watson Library, Tate Library, the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University, the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. She lives and works in rural Massachusetts.

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“There are certain places which the fairies have power over at night and if anybody goes into them after dusk, he cannot come out until morning though he may be walking all night.” — Irish National Folklore Collection 

Stray Sod investigates the phenomenon of the same name in Irish folklore: enchanted patches of earth that will lead astray anyone who steps on them. Inspired by first-hand accounts preserved in the Irish National Folklore Collection, Maria Lax reimagines rural Irish landscapes through this otherworldly lens. 

The stories describe instances in which individuals are forced to navigate a world characterised by sudden shifts into unfamiliarity and strangeness. A world in which established reference points distort and slip away, causing great distress to those experiencing it. Stray Sod draws timely parallels between these historic stories and the destabilising effects of today’s fast-changing political and technological environment.

“Many of the stray sod accounts seem to take place during periods of great change, such as a time of grieving, but can be equally seen as a metaphor for depression, addiction, shifting political landscapes or rapid technological advancements that have the power to completely upend our lives. They are stories about becoming lost; about the invisible realities that can change our lives overnight, and the unknown landscapes through which we must travel.” 

Biography

Maria Lax is a Finnish photographer and director based in London. Her work draws on folklore, beliefs and the otherworldly; themes that flow effortlessly into her work.

Her commercial portfolio includes collaborations with leading brands such as Apple, Channel 4, Vogue Italia, Chanel, Virgin Records and Samsung. Her first directing commission was a multi-award winning Channel 4 ident, and since then she has been nominated for the Young Director Award in Cannes (2025), and for the Creative Circle’s Most Promising Commercial Director Award (2025).

Maria’s work has been exhibited in more than fourteen countries and was recently featured in the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery. She has published two sold-out photobooks, Some Kind of Heavenly Fire (Setanta Books, 2020) and Taken by the Tide (Nazraeli Press, 2023). Her third book, Stray Sod, exploring Irish folklore, will be published in 2026.

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