Dafydd Jones is a documentary photographer based in the UK. He is best known for his irreverent black-and-white photographs of British high society. In 2020, he published Oxford: The Last Hurrah, a collection of images documenting life at Oxford University in the ’80s: a “secret world” of romance, riches and parties through the night. This month, he publishes the Cambridge companion, capturing a centuries-long tradition of May Week celebrations (balls, garden parties, punting and other antics that now take place in June) to mark the end of the academic year.
“Survivors” of the Trinity May Ball, Cambridge, 18 June 1984 © Dafydd Jones
Students in Trinity Hall, Cambridge, June 1983 © Dafydd Jones
How did you first come to photograph the May Balls?
I grew up in Oxford and was aware of this world behind college walls; I’d catch tantalising glimpses of it. My photographs of Oxford University dining clubs were my first published works: the result of being shortlisted for a photography competition. I didn’t have much actual paid work so I had time for a project. In 1981, I decided to go to Cambridge and attempt to capture the college balls during May Week [a two-week(ish)-long celebration to mark the end of exams]. I’d been told that the Cambridge colleges really went to town for their end-of-year celebrations. I knew no one at the university. I just thought the pictures might be good. I scraped together the money for the train fare and turned up with no lodgings for the night, a small Olympus camera and several rolls of black-and-white film. I walked around Trinity College and photographed gatecrashers climbing over the wall. The first picture is on the rear cover of the book. Later that night I ran into a fellow photographer I knew, who offered me a place to crash the next day.
