The photographs in Gli Isolani (The Islanders) by Alys Tomlinson inhabit a hinterland between fiction and reality. Over a period of two years, Tomlinson documented the traditional costumes and masks worn during festivals and celebrations on the islands of the Venetian lagoon, Sicily and Sardinia. Photographing locals dressed in costumes inspired by paganism, fables and folklore, she continues to work on analogue film with a large-format plate camera. The almost mythical images, set against wild and rugged landscapes, blur the boundaries between fiction and reality, artifice and nature, and provide a rich visual language that reflects the complex history these lands have experienced. The immediacy and timelessness of Tomlinson's black and white photographs provide a connection between people and place, evoking curiosity in the viewer which prompts questions rather than providing answers. Her ongoing interest in anthropology and ethnography finds an outlet here, revealing a mysterious and otherworldly existence in which past and present merge and cultural traditions converge.