Nicola Muirhead

Lives and works in Bermuda

Artist statement

The island of Bermuda, a 21-square-mile archipelago isolated in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, is often seen as a small dot on the map or a picturesque escape—but to me, it is home, memory and inheritance. As a Bermudian documentary photographer, I am drawn to the quiet truths embedded in the island’s landscape, memories carried across generations and the enduring imprint of colonialism on a place that holds history in its very bones. "Descendants of Summer" is an ongoing documentary that explores the complexities of identity, belonging, and historical reckoning in Bermuda—an island whose present is inseparable from its past. The title references Bermuda's earliest colonial name, the Summer Isles, and evokes both the warmth of home and the haunting legacy of empire. Bermuda became the first British colony to legalise slavery in 1616, a history that continues to shape the island’s social fabric through intergenerational trauma, fractured identities and questions of belonging. This work explores the deeper truths held by descendants whose ancestors were forcibly displaced, tracing the impact of history on contemporary life. As someone born and raised here, I have witnessed how clichés of paradise often disguise facts and undermine collective memory and how small places are overlooked in global narratives. But small does not mean simple. Bermuda's story offers a magnified lens on the enduring structures of colonial power and resistance, gaining a greater understanding of the broader...

Artwork