Behold the sea!
Walt Whitman
I grew up by the sea and try to revisit whenever and wherever possible.
It was never in the sense that I wanted to sail upon it or dive into it or fish from it although I have many friends who do all of those activities. I like simply to stand at its edge and look out on it. For me the sea is more about its possibilities; what it represents.
One of my earlier photographic projects was all about taking the road to where it ended at the edge of the sea. I photographed my cycle ride from my home in London to the edge of the land. I was fascinated by the idea of the roads running out and eventually stopping. As I rode out of London through its busy city streets, then into the suburbs and then into the countryside where the roads thin out and become quieter I felt as if I were shedding something, a second skin perhaps that I wear the rest of the time. Only when the road petered and left me at the edge of the land contemplating the sea did I feel that carapace fall away.
So that’s how I feel about the sea; an endless expanse upon which I feel I can cast away a part of myself. It is what I hope I express in these photographs of the sea taken throughout my time as a photographer.
This post was inspired after hearing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Sea Symphony” from the BBC Proms. It opens with Walt Whitman’s inspiring words, “Behold the sea!” which I always think when I climb over a hill or turn a corner and uncover the sea rolling away before me.
