Coastal salt marsh series

Started in 2019 this ongoing project started as a simple landscape and light study using large format film. As time passed into 2020 it became a reassurance that through periods of enforced pandemic incarceration when it was illegal for me to visit this site, the natural daily and seasonal rhythms continued unobserved. They provided a metaphorical reminder of natural calm amongst the surrounding chaos, represented outside the frame by numerous fortified ancient and modern defences against invasion from the continent across the North Sea. Each frame is divided equally between land and sky; one no more important than the other. The foreground depicts a distinctive natural salt marsh pool surrounded by rare protected flora such as sea heath and sea kale. Further out is the Ore river estuary, then a long shingle spit (visible from space) provides a barrier to the sea beyond. This is a special place with a feeling of timelessness; one can imagine it has remained this way for several thousand years. These five images are ordered by time of day and portray the subtle changes in light, water level, flora and sky formation.