CHRIS BETHELL / BRITISH CONVENTIONS / UFO

Chris Bethell, one of this year’s Futures winners, has meticulously crafted a portfolio of images focused on the eccentricities that can be found at British conventions. In this series, he explored all things extraterrestrial.

'For the past few years I’ve been building up a project with the working title of ‘British Conventions’ in which I attend various exhibitions, conventions and festivals within the United Kingdom: events in which large groups of people congregate around a shared interest or passion. I believe that off the back of this Andy Greenacre at The Telegraph thought I might be a good fit for accompanying journalist Guy Kelly on his visit to Manchester’s Awakening UFO Expo. It was an incredibly dreamy commission for me as I’ve always been intrigued by alien conspiracy theorists and being thrown into the middle of a big group of passionate people is one of my favourite contexts to photograph in. 

When I first turned up myself and Guy walked into the main hall where Nick Pope (former MoD official and self proclaimed UFO whistleblower) was leading a lecture: talking about how first contact will shape our society. I mooched about the warehouse space noticing and photographing his crowd in their alien themed garb before getting a few snaps of him. The rest of the exhibition space was made up of stalls selling movie prop alien masks, truther t-shirts, psychedelic artwork and conspiracy books; mediums offering their psychic services, larger than life werewolf sculptures, meet an greet stations and of course: some Greys to pose for photos with.'