Davenant 📸
@marcdavenant
Award-winning photographer and writer. Big Issue Top 100 Changemaker 2026. Website is
One of the notable moments in the Outsiders touring exhibition was when it was displayed inside the Houses of Parliament. We added this huge panel, along with a photo of people still rough sleeping on the Embankment, to confront politicians with the consequences of their decisions on homelessness.
“I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain—and back in rain…” The inside back cover of our new Nighthawks zine which should be available in a month or so.
Some visitor comments from the Rebellion! exhibition in London. First time we’ve had a comments book with arrows drawn with answers to the previous comments.
Here’s a useful list of symptoms of an enlarged prostate. Mostly it’s benign but very important to get it checked
Some comments from the visitor book at the Rebellion! exhibition in Newcastle. It’s certainly stimulating debate but apparently redacting grossly offensive comments is ‘facist’.
Thanks to everyone who has visited the Rebellion! exhibition and left a comment. Just a reminder that grossly offensive or unlawful comments will be redacted as they breach our community guidelines. Respectful debate is good, racism, homophobia and Islamophobia won’t be tolerated
Most people don’t know that Thatcher established a secret committee during the Miners’ Strike of 1984, purportedly about coal, but whose underlying purpose was to degrade and ultimately destroy the power of organised labour across Britain. She saw collective bargaining as a threat to the free market
Difficult to read the handwriting but here are two diametrically opposed views on the Rebellion! exhibition from the comments book. A Restore supporter complaining about the positive migrant stories and another visitor replying and putting them in their place.
Two traitors to @countbinface.bsky.social seen recently in Makerfield #TrashNotFash
‘We demand’ protest sign stuck to the ground with duct tape, Newcastle from my Rebellion! series. #Photography
Rusting tractor near abandoned fishing boats, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, from my new series ‘50 Years On’. There was a thriving fishing community here at one time, now severely diminished.
Layers of history, back alley behind boarded up houses, East Durham in 2026 from my new project ‘50 Years On’ documenting the impact on communities of five decades of deindustrialisation. #Photography
Steve, the first photo from the Outsiders project. He had just told me he became homeless after his son died. Soon afterwards he was also dead having become ill while sleeping rough. They all have a story, the problem is that nobody is listening. #Photography
I had Don McCullin’s Aldermaston photo from 1960 in mind when I framed that photo.
Children at the climate strike in 2019 pleading with adults to safeguard their futures. These kids would now all be criminals under Labour’s new anti-protest law which came into force this week as climbing on a memorial is now a criminal offence.
A man protesting against the introduction of draconian anti-protest legislation by the then Tory government. Under Labour’s new law, which came into force this week, this type of protest is now a criminal offence and he would be arrested and potentially imprisoned if he did this today.
As of this week the Labour government has made all peaceful protests like the one shown in this photo illegal. They would now be arrested and potentially imprisoned for the face masks and smoke flares. Labour is now an authoritarian government far to the right of Thatcher and nobody seems to care.
What better metaphor for the state of Britain today than the most expensive house in the country, valued at over £210m, lying empty and unused for years while on the front step lives a man experiencing homelessness, his possessions laid out like some sort of art installation.
Conspiracy theorist from my Rebellion! exhibition and zine https://marcdavenant.com/product/rebellion-zine/ #Photography
One group I spotted during the Makerfield by-election. I wonder who funds them - those cars don’t come cheap. I lot of people driving past were hooting their horns in support which is depressing but not surprising.
From the visitor comments book in the Rebellion! exhibition today, just after they watched the part of the video which features Tom Robinson.
When documenting far right protests you see a lot of AI generated images which manage to be ridiculous and threatening in equal measure. I imagine a psychologist would have a field day with this one.
Far right protesters outside an asylum hotel, one is wearing huge bloomers with the words ‘Not Tonight’ on them.
Iran monarchy protesters in Newcastle calling for the restoration of Reza Pahlavi, son of the last shah. I hadn’t realised how deeply aligned this movement is with the English far right, but as I took this they were playing a speech by Tommy Robinson that was so offensive the police intervened.
The Foreigner concert in Manchester this week was great fun, with fab performances, but it did raise the question as to whether a band with no original members left has simply become a tribute act. I don’t know the answer or whether it matters.
From 1 July anyone in the EU who buys a zine from me for £10 will now also have to pay a €3 import duty up front plus postage. Brexit has already wiped out 50% of my print sales and this is just rubbing salt in the wound. Well done Brexiters.
Some nice comments from visitors to the Rebellion! exhibition in Newcastle City Library this week.