An intentional community is a planned residential community with a common social, political or spiritual vision. There are over 100 intentional communities in the UK, many of which remain hidden from mainstream society. In the turbulent modern-day world, they represent experimentations for what is possible in the humane and social development of political, economic and cultural relations.
The communities I visited included a Quaker Community in Derbyshire, Tipi Valley in Wales, Hedgehog Eco-Community in Sussex and Redfield Community in Buckinghamshire. I was most interested in the children who lived in these communities, many of whom had been born there. These young people valued the simple things in life and many of them hoped to stay within the communities, and within nature, as they looked towards adulthood.
I was welcomed at each of these communities with honesty and warmth. After a few days there, I could understand the appeal of life outside of the modern, urban mainstream. To reflect this slow and considered way of life, I chose to shoot all the images on a large format, 5×4 film camera. In these communities I found kind, compassionate and interesting people looking for a better way of life. Although not always harmonious, the communities embody the possibility of an alternative way of living and the search for a utopian lifestyle
