Beaches
A halfway place
Both of the land and of the sea, a product of an eternal battle of attrition, a beach is a halfway place, shifting and evolving, a place of inherent change. I sometimes think a beach speaks to us of our own lives, our own evolution, our own grinding down with time. Looking out to the liquidity of changing tides and seasonal swells, then turning to look back to a world of solidity, of rock and soil. We are caught in a halfway place.
In our millions we are drawn, to reflect in silence, to tan our skins, to fish for our families, to swim with friends, to search for treasures lost. A place of pleasure or necessity, but always I feel a place where hope clings on. For me, to step onto a beach is to renew a connection with life and with hope. Below, I offer up some of my memories, but it's a list that is impossible to complete as memories themselves shift and evolve.
Sun sea sand
As a child a beach was a place of exploration and discovery. A lifeless jellyfish washed ashore: four purple circles on his transparent back, tentacles and stingers, scary and impossible to understand. Driftwood, sprinkled with barnacles, twisted, sun-bleached, and for me the loneliest thing in the World. Strange coloured plastic from distant ships or exotic lands over the horizon. All around me, crabs from holes in the sand and in rock pools, scuttling about, making sand balls as they fed. Pleasure and danger, a beach promised adventure and always delivered.
With adulthood comes freedom of choice, and choices have lead me to seek out beaches in many countries. From the long cold windswept strands of Donegal in Ireland to the scorching crowded sands of Shonan in Japan. Sands as white as snow in Florida, to the black volcanic sands of The Canaries. Camber on the English South coast with a car load of friends, to Balding Bay on Magnetic island on a solo hike. I hope you too have so many memories, and that these few images will stir within you the desire to sit on a beach, look out to sea and feel alive.
Changing light
The passage of time creates waves of its own: from sunrise to sunset, day to night, season to season, the light changes. The weather also plays its part, changing the light, changing the mood. We all take photos of sunsets, trying to capture the beauty that we know can never be held, clinging on to something bigger than ourselves. Before mankind existed and labeled it as such, the world was a beautiful place. I take comfort from the thought It will always be so.
