The Passenger

These are photographs, mostly from a slow boat on the Thames. The people on shore didn’t know I was there — or if they did, they didn’t care. I was passing. What I saw, through my lens, was that they were performing the old myths without ever even knowing it. The erstwhile royal, bowed down to when found out, Abdication,The Fisher King on the tidal flat. Horus among his birds. The Merchant emerging, up the stone steps. A couple conjoined on the lawn, sculpted into the topiaries. The archetypes haven’t gone anywhere; they’re just wearing modern clothes. I owe the title equally to Iggy Pop and Joseph Campbell. Iggy for the vantage — the passenger who rides and rides and looks out through the window. Campbell for what the window shows.

— Wayne Rainey

The images, in order: 1. Abdication 2. Carriage 3. Dialogue 4. Urbanus 5. Pillory 6. Vanquished 7. The Shire 8. Topiaries 9. Gertrude Jekyll 10. The Pitch 11. The Wounded King 12. The Merchant 13. Horus