Adam MJ Barnes - Photography

08/07/2026

Two weeks on, and I'm still going through First Light.

A festival is a hard thing to photograph well. It's not the headliners, it's the sweat and the joy and the in-between moments, the crowd with their arms up, the sunrise nobody wanted to miss. So here's my First Light, in black and white, with one bit of colour I couldn't bring myself to drain: the sun coming up over the beach, and half of Lowestoft there to watch it.

That's Seth Lakeman on the fiddle, giving it everything. The rest are the acts that make this festival what it is, a lot of them local, all of them worth your time. I've not tagged everyone because I don't know every name, so if you spot yourself, tag yourself in. I'd love to credit you properly.

This is a festival built largely on home talent, on a beach at the far edge of the country. That's worth being loud about.

Full set below. Colour returns tomorrow, normal service and all that.

19/06/2026

Four years running now, I've set a 3am alarm to go and photograph a bronze man on an empty beach before anyone else is up.

Firstlight Festival starts tomorrow in Lowestoft. Before it does, here's a quiet tradition I never planned.

Every year, sculptor Laurence Edwards puts a new bronze on South Beach. I've ended up photographing all of them at sunrise.

2023, the Chthonic Head, bedded into the tide line.

2024, five Walking Men, mid-stride in the half light.

2025, Shimmer and Borrowed Breath, catching the first sun off the sea.

This morning, The Long Wait. A seated figure with two thin sticks rising off its temples like horns, sat there waiting for the festival to turn up around it.

Here's the bit I like. Edwards builds these to be read in changing light. The tide, the weather, the sun, even the moon. Turn up at dawn and the sculpture is doing exactly the thing it was made to do. The crowds get it in flat midday light. I get this.

I've been Firstlight's photographer since the first one in 2019. Most of the festival happens when everyone's awake. This bit happens when almost nobody is.

Full set below. The festival's free, on the beach, all weekend. Worth the early start.

30/05/2026

New site, finally live.

adambarnesphotos.co.uk is up and running, and it pulls together the work I love most: architecture, festivals and events, theatre and people. Prestige buildings from London to Cambridge, official photographer duties for Firstlight, festival work at Latitude.

A lot of this job comes down to knowing when to wait, when to move, and when to just press the shutter. The new site is my attempt to show that in one place.

Have a look, tell me what you think, and if you've got a project in mind, get in touch.

23/12/2025

Welcoming the gradual return of longer days, and looking ahead to First Light moments in the warmth of the summer sun once again… 🌅

📷 Adam MJ Barnes - Photography

28/07/2025

Amazing music, amazing artists!! Wow!

21/07/2025

That one was an early morning, and what a festival!!

We're called First Light for a reason... 🌅



📷 Adam MJ Barnes - Photography
[Image: A striking sunrise over a beach with a silhouetted sculpture in the foreground against a colourful sky.]