A project responding to the national 1418 NOW programme, exploring folklore in its broadest terms - and demonstrating that it isn’t always what you think.

Working with The Museum of British Folklore and Charles Freger, along with a variety of creative makers, practitioners, and photographers, this two-day student programme investigated the costumed, anonymous folkloric characters found across Northern Europe, as featured in Charles Freger’s series The Wilder Mann.

The weird and wonderful rituals depicted can seem strange and exotic, but are they really so different from the rituals found on our doorstep? As people seek out shared identities, kinfolk, and tribes, we in turn create idiosyncrasies that make us different and the same all at once.

Student workshops began with a subject lecture, followed by a costume-making workshop, a guided studio photography session with specialists, and concluded with a Skype critique with Charles Freger.