Jonathan Ellery’s fascination with the pre-ordained and pre-programmed lives that we have all been born into continues in his latest publication, Tribes 1.

As always he’s drawn to the invisible ‘scaffolding’ that dictates how people live their lives whilst at the same time holding each life together.

Says Ellery “I’m interested in who’s in control, and why. I’m constantly trying to establish my own interpretation of the world through my own eyes and with my own brain, to develop my own narrative”. He concludes “I’m interested in the fight required to live outside of the ‘scaffolding’ independently. The fight is important”.

Gender, family, art, politics, religion, drugs and race are some of the tribal influences that appear on the pages of this book.

His signature abstract narrative, in this context, is guttural, abstract and raw. Certain sequences are formed; certain narratives come into play and are then left entirely to the viewer to interpret.