Spanning over a decade of photos, Normal for Norfolk begins at the photographer’s final visit to his family’s holiday home in the Norfolk village of Snettisham, aged thirteen. The series depicts subsequent visits to the surrounding towns and villages on the North Norfolk Coast that the photographer frequented as a child. The series takes its title from the derogatory phrase used to exemplify the historically perceived strangeness and backwardness of the county. The project began as an observation of English coastal communities, documenting the quirks, charms and contradictions of the seaside tourist destinations that once boomed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, now since in decline.
This social documentary approach has been fused with a biographical narrative, presenting the photographer’s long and changing relationship with the region and the people he associates with the area. Family excursions, drunken teenage weekends and professional trips capture the nostalgic rush of returning to the stages on which childhood is played out. In 2021, the project took on greater salience when the photographer’s sister, Rachael, who is depicted frequently throughout the project, died aged 29. In Normal for Norfolk, pastel paints are sun-faded, neon signs don’t burn as bright, and the heater-skelter seems smaller than it used to.
Thom Corbishley is a photographer from Cambridge and based in London. A keen photographer since his early teens, Thom uses his background in history and politics to make photos that examine and investigate ideas of Britishness and the English landscape. In 2019, Thom completed a Masters in Photography at the London College of Communication (UAL), and was the winner of the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain Award. In 2020, Thom was the youngest photographer to feature in Facing Britain, a major touring retrospective of British social documentary photography from the 1960s until its departure from the European Union. Alongside his creative practices, Thom undertakes fashion and commercial projects, producing work for a number of graphic design studios and clothing brands.