Rab G. P. Lewin is a photographer based in Ardnamurchan on Scotland’s west coast. His work is rooted in direct experience, shaped by long-term engagement with subcultural environments and everyday life.

He began photographing in 1985 while studying in Edinburgh. The following year, he travelled to the 1986 Glastonbury Festival, then still operating under its original identity as the Glastonbury CND Festival. The images produced during that period form one of the earliest bodies of work in his archive.

Glastonbury in 1986 was markedly different from the contemporary event. Around 60,000 people gathered at Worthy Farm in a largely unregulated environment defined by openness, minimal infrastructure and a strong countercultural ethos aligned with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Lewin’s photographs move through this setting without hierarchy, focusing as much on the people and informal spaces of the festival as on the performances themselves.

Rather than documenting headline moments, the work concentrates on the social fabric of the event. His photographs reflect a close, unstructured approach, built on proximity and participation rather than observation from a distance.

This early body of work established an approach that would continue through Lewin’s later projects, including his documentation of post-reunification Berlin and other European subcultural scenes. Across his practice, the emphasis remains on presence, access and the conditions in which images are made.