The book with a 9.5 × 12 inch fine art print from the series.
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First edition · Lecturis, 2024
Mayflies by Darren Smith
A photographic project on temporary communities, ritual time, and the construction of identity.
€88,00Shipping & tax calculated at checkout
Ships from the Netherlands within 24 hours · Worldwide delivery
About the book
Mayflies brings together seven years of photographs by Amsterdam-based photographer Darren Smith, made at festivals, carnivals, and cultural gatherings across Europe, North America, and Latin America.
Working with a portable studio within these events, Smith creates portraits that move beyond spectacle to explore identity, ritual, and collective self-expression.
The title refers to the mayfly, an insect that lives only briefly, compressing an entire life into a single day. For Smith, it becomes a metaphor for his subjects who spend months, often an entire year, preparing for a moment of appearance in which they fully inhabit a constructed identity, before returning to everyday life.
Specifications
- PublishedDecember 2024 by Lecturis
- Format280 × 360 mm · Hardback, cloth bound cover
- Pages208 pp · 122 images
- FoilMetallic silver hot foil stamping
- BindingSmyth-sewn with woven headbands
- ISBN978-9462265332
Shipping & returns
Orders ship from the Netherlands within 24 hours. Worldwide delivery; shipping is calculated at checkout. The book is packed in a protective sleeve and shipping box.
Between document and performance
Removed from the surrounding intensity and placed against a simple backdrop, his subjects become precise, vulnerable, and charged by the social energy of the event.
Special editions
The book, with a print to live beside it
Each special edition pairs the Mayflies book with a fine art print from the series, in two sizes.
The book with an 8 × 10 inch fine art print from the series.
View edition
The book together with a black steel book stand by Stet Studios, made to display Mayflies open on any surface.
View bundleIn the press
“A world in itself”
After seven years of travel, encounters and photographs, the real subject of Mayflies is not raves, carnivals or queer festivals. It is the communities that, for a few hours or a few days, give themselves the opportunity to reimagine who they are.DomusItaly
Down to the smallest detail, the mayflies have become what they want to be at that moment. The result is a series of compelling and at times surreal portraits that can fire everyone's imagination.Trouw · Amber DujardinNetherlands
Aalst carnivalists shine in photo book Mayflies: it's a world in itself.HLNBelgium
The 1,000+ MayfliesRead their stories
From thousands of photographs, 120 portraits were chosen.
What began in Amsterdam's night culture evolved into a seven-year journey across three continents.
Own a piece of this extraordinary journey. A testament to creativity that burns briefly, but brightly.