The power of this exhibition lies in its portraiture of ordinary people defending environments and habitats of which they feel an ownership and about which they are fiercely protective – their homeland. There are many images from Oxfordshire, and nearby – our own homeland: Oxfordshire GM farming protests, the Campaign to Save Jericho Boatyard, the floods in West Oxford, the Newbury Bypass protest and Save the Radley Lakes Campaign.

The story starts in 1994, when Adrian Arbib returned to a grey subdued Britain from Africa, where he had been photographing nomadic herders and the fragile eco-system which supported their way of life. Both were under threat of extinction, owing to outside forces. First, through his record of the Solsbury Hill protests and later via stands made by other local people, Arbib has built up a strong set of images of ordinary people behaving passionately and extraordinarily to protect their world: the one they love. Pictured above, from the Solsbury Hill sequence is Solsbury Adrian 1994, as he literally swings into protest action, redolent with both energy and good nature.

Baylin in his Tripod 1996, at Newbury, is a dark figure, high up on a fragile construction, silhouetted against a setting sun, whose blood red and gold are reduced to a myopic blur by sand and dust particles suspended in the air, because of the atmospheric pollution from the bypass construction work. This is one of the few colour images in the exhibition; the majority of the work is black-and-white, hand-printed, un-manipulated and reproduced on paper that gives it a gritty depth.

The result is a thought- provoking and at times almost beautiful celebratory show, which speaks of what people will do to defend what they really care about. The exhibition is at Art Jericho, Oxford, and continues to March 13 – Wed to Sat, 10am-5pm.