Bonington Gallery exhibition: Alan Lodge Common Grounds: Counterculture & Confrontation since 1976
This autumn, Bonington Gallery will present the first major survey of photographer Alan Lodge, one of the UK’s most important chroniclers of alternative culture, protest movements, and grassroots activism.
Spanning five decades, the exhibition brings together work documenting travelling communities, free festivals, rave culture, environmental campaigns, and anti-war protests. As a member of a travelling community for many years, Lodge offers a rare insider perspective into the people, places, and subcultures that emerged beyond mainstream society, exploring how they have shaped Britain’s social and cultural landscape over the last 50 years.
Celebrating a life dedicated to activism, the exhibition traces Lodge's journey from the free festival movement of the 1970s, to cultural celebrations and headline-making events, reflecting on the changing relationship between citizenship, protest, environmental concern, public space and state authority.
After a brief career as an emergency paramedic in the London Ambulance Service, Alan “Tash” Lodge took up photography and documented the emerging free festival movement in the late 1970s. In 1985, Lodge and his family joined the Peace Convoy on its annual journey to Stonehenge, where he was involved with, and photographed, the clashes between the police and travellers in what became known as the Battle of the Beanfield, resulting in one of the most violent mass arrests in British history.
In 1990, Lodge moved to Nottingham to study photography at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University), where he became involved with the city’s influential music collective DiY Sound System, which held free parties across the UK. Among his most celebrated images are those capturing partygoers at Castlemorton Common in Wiltshire, widely regarded as the largest illegal rave in British history, which led to the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994.
Alan Lodge. June 1981 Confrontation, Summer Solstice, Stonehenge Free Festival. © Alan Lodge
Lodge’s work has appeared in publications and journals worldwide. His photographs have also been featured in documentaries and films, including Operation Solstice for Channel 4, Jeremy Deller’s BBC documentary Everybody in the Place: an Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992 (2018)and most recently Aaron Trinder’s documentary ‘Free Party: A Folk History’ (2023). He was interviewed for Daniel Ward’s film, Lonesome Ghosts (2025), show at Peer, and spoke to Stewart Lee about the Battle of the Beanfield in the R4 podcast ‘What happened to Counter-Culture?’
In recent years Lodge has continued to extensively document his involvement and attendance of public demonstrations and festivals, and is active in various welfare and advice agencies, including Festival Welfare. Lodge is known for his documentation of police surveillance and was a regular contributor to Indymedia UK. His website offers guidance on the rights of photographers documenting public places and demonstrations.
Featuring around 80 photographs alongside 35mm slide projections, moving image, personal archives and previously unseen material, the exhibition traces Lodge’s extensive career. Also presented will be legal correspondence and documentation relating to his own encounters and legislative actions with the police and authorities, highlighting questions around civil liberties, surveillance and the rights of photographers in public spaces.
Tom Godfrey, Director, Bonington Gallery, said:
“I am delighted to be exhibiting Alan’s work in Nottingham, a figure so connected to the city and region but whose impact goes well beyond. His photographs offer an important visual history of the people and communities that have shaped modern Britain, but who are often overlooked in mainstream historical narratives. Charting five decades of alternative culture, the exhibition highlights ongoing questions around protest, civil liberties, police surveillance and land access, which feels very pertinent to our current moment.”
Exhibition details:
Alan Lodge: Common Grounds: Counterculture & Confrontation since 1976
25 September – 12 December 2026
Bonington Gallery
Exhibition Launch: Thursday 24 September, 6-8pm