BIG FENCE / PITCAIRN ISLAND

Big Fence / Pitcairn Island is a powerful and disturbing exploration of a Claustrophobic “Paradise Lost”: A broken society shrouded in mistrust. Pitcairn Islands are the last British Overseas Territory in the ocean Pacific. Pitcairn Island itself is the only inhabited island in the group, and although it is small in size (measuring only two miles by one mile) and in population (now less than 50), it has aroused widespread interest over the past two centuries. In 2015, Rhiannon Adam, inspired by a childhood gift of "The Mutiny on The Bounty" and the desire to capture the fragility of the island on an expiring analog film, made the long journey to Pitcairn Island. Due to the quarterly shipping schedule, it is remained trapped on the island for 96 nights. Naturally suspicious of the "journalists", the Pitcairns were, on the whole, reluctant to get involved in Adam's project. Throughout the book, the subjects appear mostly alone, photographed in solitude and shelter prying eyes. Designed to be as impenetrable and complex as the island itself, the book is composed of two parts: Adam's own experience of the island as it is told through its legends and stories personal, and a volume of photographs and related archives. The latter traces the evolution of the particular characteristics that led to the breakup of the community, both from a contemporary point of view that historical. Throughout, Adam encourages us to consider the dangers of romanticism and to reflect on our collective guilt for the subjugation of women.