SOLIVAGANT

On 12th December 2015 the body of a man is discovered next to a track on Saddleworth Moor. The man had no ID, phone or wallet. The only items in his possession were a return train ticket from London to Manchester, £130 in £10 notes and a bottle of medication labelled Thyroxine sodium, which actually contained strychnine.

With the police having very little to go on for identification, the man was given the name of Neil Dovestones. This was a name he would hold until 26th January 2017 when he was formally ID’d.

The story of Neil Dovestones spread globally, resulting in vast and varied speculation of who he was and why he traveled to Saddleworth moor. The lack of answers only served to feed people’s appetite for them.

In the making of ‘Solivagant’, Tom Carpenter retraces the man’s journey, leaning into those unanswered questions and embracing the speculative and suggestive with his photographs.