We’re thrilled to share that award-winning photographer and artist Lottie Davies has had work from her powerful series Quinn selected for the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2025.

Now in its 256th year, the Summer Exhibition is the world’s longest-running open-submission art show, showcasing an extraordinary range of contemporary works across all disciplines. The 2025 exhibition opens to the public on Tuesday 17th June and runs until Sunday 17th August at the Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London.

Lottie’s selected photograph comes from Quinn, an ambitious and immersive multi-modal project that combines large-format photography, moving image, text, and ephemera. Designed to be experienced much like a novel, theatre production, and film simultaneously, Quinn invites viewers into a richly layered narrative space that reflects on themes of grief, loss, loneliness, and the redemptive power of time and landscape.

At the heart of the project is the fictional story of William Henry Quinn, a young man walking from the south-west of England to the far north of Scotland in post-Second World War Britain. Though imagined, Quinn’s journey is a response to real experiences of individuals navigating trauma—then and now. His odyssey reflects the internal and external struggles of those unmoored by conflict, socio-economic collapse, or personal tragedy, searching for purpose and place in an altered world.

As we travel with Quinn across the British landscape—much of which remains unchanged since the 1940s—we encounter a poignant contrast between the constancy of geography and the shifting nature of memory and identity. The ancient footpaths and byways act as a silent witness to generations of people in transition. In following Quinn’s story, we are invited to reflect on our own existential questions, the meaning of home, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Inclusion in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is a wonderful recognition of Lottie’s distinctive voice in contemporary photography, and we’re so pleased to see her work included in such an iconic cultural event.

Lottie’s ‘Quinn’ work has also been published as a limited edition monograph, available now.
Quinn (2014–2020) is published by Mutton Row Books as a beautifully produced 160-page hardback (215 x 155mm), featuring both four-colour and duotone images, along with 18 throw-out pages. The book includes a separate Singer-sewn booklet (127 x 102mm on 60gsm paper) and access to audio narration by Samuel J Weir via QR code.