Seaside Photographed

Book excerpt: How has the seaside been photographed? From the roaring waves of the nineteenth century through the reportage of the 1960s and the critical documentary of the 80s and 90s, to what is perhaps the more intimate work of the last ten years. No-one can tell it exactly the way it is. We all have a vision of the seaside which is uniquely our own. Memories, false and real, are aided and abetted by photography, a unique, fascinating, but in the end unreliable source of evidence. And time changes everything. What remains are a set of substantial fragments, thoughts along the way, obsessions, records, constructions, journeys. Ours for the taking