The series documents a group of rural men who through the winter months head out into a Kentish landscape to shoot pheasant, partridge and grouse. The sport of game shooting is most popular in Britain and especially within England. It is undertaken between the months of October and February; this is known as 'the season'. During the shoots the group are separated between the 'beaters' and the 'guns' the aim of the first group is to drive the game down the field into the firing line of the guns at the opposite end (an act that is reminiscent to walking across no mans land towards the oncoming gunfire).

 

The people that partake in these shoots share a sense of camaraderie and community, bringing people together from different backgrounds, parts of society and of all different ages. In recent years it has come into some scrutiny, this is due to concerns to over population of the birds used for game, and what effect this could have on the ecosystem as well the impact on the native wildlife within the British countryside, as pheasant and red legged partridge are not. 

 

The work does not set out to take the sides of either argument but to document a tradition that has been part of British culture for a substantial part of its history. This is my first series that focuses on a more rural theme, but it does make up a chapter in my body of work on the Medway Towns in Kent.