Fellsman

My Dad was fell runner as a young boy growing up in a town called Settle on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales national park. He would spend every spare moment roaming the hills and racing in local fell races. I've always had a fascination with the sport and the small scale, amateur existence of it. Fell races often attract less than 100 participants and the winner often picks up a bottle of beer for their troubles. There is a beautiful modesty and community that comes with the sport and I've been wanting to make a project about the individuals who make up this crazy pursuit. I approached the club my Dad ran with as a junior, Settle Harriers, who put me in touch with young club runner Sonny Ashton-Fitch. At 21 years old and 6foot6 Sonny was training for his first Three Peaks Marathon fell race and was open to me documenting his training and making my first film about his relationship with the sport the mountains he knows so intimately. I work as a photographer predominantly and have been wanting to move into moving image, so this is my first venture. I bought a 16mm camera and a few rolls of film and set out into the hills with Sonny and a small team of friends to make the film. ‘Fellsman’ is a portrait of young fell runner Sonny Ashton-Fitch. The project follows Sonny during the spring season as he trains for the annual Three Peaks Fell Race. The work is an exploration of Sonny’s relationship with the fells that surround him, the landscape that unfurls under foot and the animals he passes. The photographs and film reflect on what it means to be a Yorkshireman, how it feels to push your body to its limit and the freedom that comes with an ability to run all over the Dales. From a small village at the base of the North Yorkshire Dales, Sonny has grown up with the fells in his back garden. Ingleborough, Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside stand tall above the rest, and since the age of 12 Sonny has spent any spare time running their steep untamed contours. An unusual fell runner at 6 foot 6, Sonny is a talented athlete who pushes his rangy frame to its limit up the fells and let his legs go loose on technical descents - picking up a speed propelled by gravity that relies on confidence of stable footing. Defined by the steepness of the mountains that are ascended, fell running is a quintessentially amateur British sport that exists in the humblest scale across Northern England. I shot the project in the colder spring months as Sonny trained for the Three Peaks Marathon Fell race. A race that sonny ended up winning the Under-25 category at his first time of trying and at the age of 21.