JUNE 2025 · ROAM

Someone for everybody

Stapleton, Bristol

Stoke Park is an estate on the north-east edge of Bristol, managed for public access, with views across the city from the upper slopes. It's also where the goats are.

Brown goat lying on its side on a sunny tarmac path, head tilted back mid-scratch, Stoke Park Bristol — Homepage goat, earning it

— The brown goat

There's a brown goat I've photographed before. It has a yellow ear tag and a tendency to position itself where the light is good, which I'm choosing to read as cooperation rather than coincidence. This visit it was lying on its side on a sunny tarmac path, head tilted back mid-scratch, completely at ease with everything. That image ended up on the homepage. It earned it.

The same goat, resting its head in the grass in a close portrait, horn and yellow tag and a calm expression. It looked at me like someone who's had their photograph taken before and has decided it's fine.

An indifference to human attention that, in a photograph, reads as dignity.
Stoke Park — June 2025

Close portrait of a brown and white horned goat with a yellow ear tag resting its head in the grass, Stoke Park Bristol — The look it does

Graffiti-covered concrete WWII bunker half-buried in a grassy bank with woodland behind, Stoke Park Bristol — WWII bunker, not narrated

— What else is up there

Stoke Park doesn't advertise what else it has. On the upper slope, buried in a grassy bank with woodland behind it: a concrete WWII bunker, completely covered in graffiti — tags, throw-ups, layered over years. The structure is half-submerged, its ventilation slits still visible above the turf line. Nobody is pointing at it or narrating it. It's just there among the dog walkers and the Sunday cyclists.

Two people sat on a concrete hilltop structure nearby — also graffitied — overlooking the city. The sprawl of Bristol was visible behind them, west toward the Clifton ridge.

Two people sitting on a graffiti-covered hilltop concrete structure overlooking the Bristol city sprawl, Stoke Park — West toward Clifton ridge

— Best model I have

The brown goat is the best model I have. It doesn't move when I get close and it doesn't look at the camera in a way that reads as performing. It just happens to be a goat with good spatial awareness and an indifference to human attention that, in a photograph, reads as dignity.

Full series — Someone for everybody 4 photographs

Brown goat lying on its side on a sunny tarmac path, head tilted back mid-scratch, Stoke Park Bristol

Graffiti-covered concrete WWII bunker half-buried in a grassy bank with woodland behind, Stoke Park Bristol

Close portrait of a brown and white horned goat with a yellow ear tag resting its head in the grass, Stoke Park Bristol

Two people sitting on a graffiti-covered hilltop concrete structure overlooking the Bristol city sprawl, Stoke Park

Roam Someone for everybody

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