John Duncan, Bonfires

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In Bonfires, photographer John Duncan documents the long-standing Protestant tradition of bonfire building--part of the annual July 11 celebration commemorating the defeat of James Stuart at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690--in his native Belfast. The large structures on which the fires are lit serve as a powerful assertion of Protestant identity and signal a sense of community solidarity. Duncan's photographs frame these structures against Belfast's changing urban landscape, revealing the deep divisions that, despite political progress, still affect Northern Ireland long after the cease-fires. Duncan's images reveal the expressive, jerry-rigged constructions that are lit to create the fires. They recall all manner of real and mythic architecture, from high-rise apartment buildings to military watchtowers, gun emplacements, the Empire State Building or the Tower of Babel.