Wild and exciting, the Greek god Pan induces both fear and awe; at times, he is dangerous, stirring panic and creating pandemonium. His name, coincidentally, means ‘all’.

Photographer Sara Hannant takes us on a magical journey throughout England’s gardens and parks, giving us insights into how the Horned God has manifested within classical and contemporary sculpture. Captured since 2024, Hannant’s dreamlike images, made in-camera, evoke the untamed and mystical qualities of the Great God Pan and his equivalents.

These photographs investigate the role of Pan as a personification of nature, fertility and the wild. When the Victorians saw the environment as fragile and threatened by industrialisation and urbanisation, the Horned God symbolised a reunion with the natural world.

Now, in our age of climate emergency, Pan returns, rousing us to recognise our own place within nature.

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About the author
Sara Hannant is an artist and photographer whose work is inspired by witchcraft, magic and folklore. She is fascinated by photography’s diverse expressive qualities and uses analogue, digital, and alternative processes. Her work explores the dynamics of chance, unpredictability, agency, and control. She has a collaborative approach to storytelling.

Her books include Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids: A Journey through the Ritual Year in England, Merrell, (2011), which was a Horniman Museum touring exhibition, and Of Shadows: One Hundred Objects from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic (with Simon Costin), Strange Attractor Press, (2016). .