Foxes and friends: Lakshan Dharmapriya photographs the two species that coexist in his garden

The photographer Lakshan Dharmapriya has always had something of an “affinity” for foxes. Before leaving the UK at age 11 to move with his family to Australia, he lived on Foxland Road, and, from then on he says that, “my thoughts about the concept of home, and of youth, have always been weirdly intertwined with the fox”.

Upon moving back to the UK and moving in with a handful of friends into a house in Brixton, London, Lakshan found himself once again faced with foxes – this time, a pair who enjoyed sunbathing in his new garden during the winter months. “It was special to witness them so intimately and it felt almost mythical that they were there to greet me upon my return to the country,” says Lakshan. With both this affinity and sense of serendipity, it fits that the orange creatures eventually slunk their way into one of Lakshan’s projects, aptly titled: Foxland.

The project wasn’t one that Lakshan exactly planned, in fact, he says that it “somewhat fell into my lap”. Following his series Off Season (which involved him living alone in a Norwegian sled dog yard for three months) he was in due need of a rest, and a chance to “re-gather” his thoughts. This, combined with the cost of living crisis and Lakshan’s reservations about jumping too quickly into the next big project left him spending a lot more time than usual at home. It was during this time that he saw the two sunbathing foxes for the first time, and he decided to start documenting them on a motion sensor trail camera, more out of “curiosity” than any concrete creative vision.

As time passed and spring emerged from winter, Lakshan began seeing much more activity in his garden, and many more foxes. Soon, a whole family of five cubs was frolicking, and every few days he would back up the hard drive of his camera to ensure he wasn’t missing any action. But it was only after six months that Lakshan eventually went to check the footage he had captured – upon which he made an interesting discovery. Not only had he captured the family of foxes, but swathes of human life too, in the many comings and goings of his flatmates and friends.

Here lies the unsuspecting, unplanned beauty of Foxland. It’s not only a series that shows the intricacies of animal life, but human too – and how we (knowingly and unknowingly) coexist in the same spaces as wild animals. “It certainly felt special to see both human and animal sharing a space with such ease, and it didn’t feel abnormal at all,” says Lakshan. “From the camera’s perspective, we were one thriving ecosystem. The individuals of the garden combined to make a miraculous whole – swarm of energy and a microcosm of life.” This sentiment echoes themes of interspecies similarities touched on in Off Season, in which Lakshan drew parallels between working huskies and humans engaged in a capitalist system of living and producing.

Upon further inspection of the images, Lakshan began to identify some similarities in his friends and the foxes’ existence. Between both, he observed “the subtleties of friendship and solitude, rest and play, youth and ageing, night and day”. To really enhance this symbiosis of inhabits, as well as the passing of time and seasons, Lakshan paired images together. In one image a fox looks into the distance, its attention caught by something, and in the image below is a figure seeming to mimic this pose, but with a coffee cup in hand. In another, a group of friends mingle in the sun, and in another a group of foxes sit together, almost as if in conversation. A few pairings, however, are pleasing for aesthetics. Like the image taken at night of two figures sparking up a cigarette, mimicked in the image below by the shining eyes of a pair of foxes, staring the camera in the eye.

Even when we may not be aware, we share the same space, the same stage as wild animals; like ships (or species) passing in the night. “A private shared space – the garden – becomes a place to leave behind all that occurs outside the fence line, particularly in the urban complex that is present-day London,” says Lakshan. Foxland is a welcome reminder – or reflection – on the nature of our existence, one that’s not in a vacuum, but instead surrounded by other beings and creatures who lead lives that might not always be entirely distinguishable from our own.