Jim Brittain-The May King 1987

Curator: This is Jim Brittain's black and white photograph, "The May King," created in 1987. The portrait captures an elderly man seated on a simple chair, his head bowed, wearing a somewhat tattered crown. Editor: There’s such melancholy clinging to this image. The grainy texture, the averted gaze...it's like peering into a fading memory. The crown only amplifies the quiet drama, suggesting lost authority, a ritual barely remembered. Curator: The crown is key, I think. May Day traditions, with their symbolic figures of rebirth and renewal, are often deeply intertwined with ideas of kingship and power—albeit often temporary and ceremonial power. But even symbols of power decay; they're never quite permanent, are they? Editor: Right. And there’s that palpable tension between the regal headdress and the setting: a mundane backyard with a simple picket fence, under a somewhat barren-looking tree. It's a king dethroned, stripped of his usual majesty, sitting among dying embers, as it were. Curator: It also brings up questions about authenticity, about what we choose to represent and what that representation costs us. A visual inquiry into who wears a crown, both literally and metaphorically, and what authority and value it symbolizes to the wearer or, in this case, doesn't. I am curious about how this photo challenges traditional notions of portraiture and societal power dynamics. Editor: It really messes with archetypes. You have this immediate sense of pathos – but it's complex. The black and white only deepens the sense of time collapsing, a long exposure of someone caught, momentarily, out of step with their myth, trapped between celebration and regret. The man might be an unwilling participant. It makes me wonder who's myth it is. Curator: Considering May Day and its pagan associations, it makes one think of the slow march of progress erasing history. Here we have this relic of a monarch who, although dressed to fulfill his kingly duties, looks mournfully over a now barren garden. Editor: That tension you just outlined? Really gets me. I won't be able to look at crowns the same way now, they are just a reminder of our eventual decay. Thanks for sharing. Curator: Agreed. I see it as an exploration of symbolism itself, reminding us how cultural meanings constantly evolve—or risk disappearing altogether. A thoughtful piece of street photography, indeed.