Firehawks is a project by Stephen King. It is the first of its kind and the culmination of years of research, beginning with a collaboration with Open Eye Gallery in 2021, where Stephen explored his own experience of firesetting. The project was exhibited at Open Eye Gallery from 26 September – 16 November 2025.
The exhibition was accompanied by a short film in which we hear from photographer Stephen King, Joanna Foster from fabtic and Christopher Hignett and Helen Ruseel from Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service. They talk about the reasons behind the firesetting behaviour and ways to address it.
“The question that we need to ask is “What happened to this child?”, not “What’s wrong with this child?”. It’s quick to see firesetting as something intrinsically bad and dangerous, when we should be asking what happened here and what’s the story here”, says Joanna Foster.
Video by Rob Battersby