Millennium Images contributor Chanel Irvine takes on the joys of England with her new book An English Summer.
An English summer is a precious thing: often short-lived but all the more tender for it. As the country contended with Brexit and Covid, Chanel Irvine traversed our shores documenting the magic of this fleeting season and the small rituals that many of us clung to in uncertain times.
Chanel is a South African-Australian documentary and portrait photographer whose work seeks to capture the timeless, ordinary beauty in everyday moments. She is particularly fascinated by the tension between preservation and change.
Since moving to London, Chanel has become enchanted by the enthusiasm with which Brits embrace the (rather underwhelming, by southern-hemisphere standards) summer. From 2019 to 2021, she spent the warmer months of each year travelling around the country, documenting small summertime rituals and sweeping landscapes. Over time, she’s come to cherish both the grey clouds and the cheerful, unwavering optimism of an English summer – and can now be found sunbathing in the park on a 15-degree day or gleefully swimming in our even colder seas.
An English Summer is Chanel Irvine’s first book and was published by Hoxton Mini Press, based in east London.
Introduction by Rosalind Jana, design by Friederike Huber.
Follow Chanel on Instagram here and buy her book here.
