Beneath Mercia/Beneoðan Merci lays the petty kingdom of South Saxons. A scarpering frost rolls over the land lunging at its burhs—from the sloped banks of Caldeburgh to the unforgiving shores of Hæstingas, tossed and hallowed, our kingdom is smothered in a bleak righteous light.
Through the blinkered eyes of the present day we look to the the land and our relationship with it, as before it has been witnessed and grieved over vast epochs of time. Dormant underneath this shallow surface lays the lived cracked veil of a now burdened soil, democratic to the eye in all its masked banality, yet still vaguely sodden with the beliefs and intrigue of those who once aligned with it – a gentle impossibility.
To have parted from this ritualistic symbiosis seeds a grievance that we have yet to fully integrate in our collective truth. Bastardised faiths birthed from old stories bulging out of the seams of this aged isle, a comforting solace on the fringes of this England.
Beneath Mercia was published by Unit 33 as an editioned photobook in November 2023 and can be bought over on their online shop.
AVAILABLE HERE
148mm x 210mm
Printed on FSC certified 120gsm paper
Sewn binding
Printed endpapers
Edition of 100
Foreword by Grace Kemp
Published & Designed by Unit 33