Seaside View

This photograph was not taken at the height of summer - if it were I think you would see quite a different scene and lots more life here, for this is a busy seaside town that thrives on its summer visitors and then goes into a sort of hibernation off-season –which is a time I have always found particularly alluring, especially at seaside resorts. I don't know why this is, perhaps it has something to do with the emptiness and the grandeur of the sea and sky and vast, empty beaches. Things that are closed up have an interest of their own, I find, and I love photographing places like this out of season. Here, the long line of beach huts (that peculiarly English tradition) stretches into the distance, but none of the brightly painted doors are open. One or two people are out walking but otherwise all is calm and sedate. Yet it is easy to imagine the chatter of excited bathers, squabbling children with buckets and spades, families set out to enjoy at day at the beach and a dip in the sea. The clouds are a little moody but not at all malignant, and there is a stretch of low, late-afternoon sunshine giving a promise of hot summers to come... Location: Lowestoft, England

Au Revoir, Tour de France, 2017

Being hooked on cycling, it is perhaps not surprising that closely following the 21 stages of the Tour de France has meant my mind this month has been full of exciting moments, gruelling mountain climbs, exhilarating sprint finishes, frenzied commentary and the whizz of bicycles flashing by. But the event is so much more than just the cycling -there's theatre, circus, history, geography, comradeship and a closeness between spectator and participant that is unlike that in any other sport. I have even had dreams about cycle races these past few weeks. Today, sadly, it is all over for 2017, but perhaps as a timely salute to France for putting on this spectacular undertaking year after year, the sun shone brightly through a couple of bottles on the white window-sill of my living room, creating the distinctive and proud Tricolore. Vive la France et Le Tour –À la prochaine!! Location: Oslo, Norway

Bench Talk

Sometimes what is missing from a picture says more than if it is included. Here, on a very hot day, two benches face each other on a vast field of grass. There are no people, but their absence is incidental –we can imagine any number of pairings or conversations that have taken place here earlier. But this is a bit like a bench stand-off –or perhaps it's a nostalgic chat, an interview, a date? The benches certainly have personality –one of them even seems to have a face (or is that just my imagination?) and there is something untypical but refreshing about their location and position. It's an image that opens up to all sorts of interpretations and somehow draws you in. Location: Hovedøya (Oslo), Norway

Street Scene

I found this little moment of an urban summer both charming and irresistible. In front of an ornate and somewhat extravagant fountain sculpture, a man is playing a guitar. His main audience is three little children standing seemingly mesmerised by his music. Other people nearby are enchanted as much by the children as the melody. I don't know which of them, if any, are their parents, but I love the span of life that is indicated by the elderly man on the side looking at them, perhaps remembering his own childhood with fondness. And who could not be captivated by these sweet children -only the ones smoking and checking their mobile telephones! (I wish I could erase them from the picture, but they are part of the moment too.) What I like above all else about the picture is the contrast of the bombastic lavishness of the statue and the simple yet epic moment of the human interactions. I'm tempted to say "All of art and all of life in one picture" but that would be stretching it a little too far. I am just glad I was able to capture such a magical little scene, even though technically the shot is not as sharp as I would have liked it to have been; sometimes (most times, perhaps) the content of an image and what it signifies is what really counts most. Location: Augsburg, Germany

Beside the Sea

This is one of a series of photographs I took when I visited Deal in Kent last September, another stop on my quest to photograph 100 coastal towns around Great Britain. I had not visited it for many years, but it is where the English side of my family comes from and I spent quite a lot of time there as a child. In front us is the English Channel, and to the left can be seen the end of the pier. But it is the simple imperfect beauty of the telephone box along with the ornate streetlights that form the real subject of the picture. There is something odd about the telephone box's location, and of course its stance, but its iconic bright red form is somehow reassuring and optimistic, and the continuation of the red with the flowerbed backed by the white wall and above that the blue water forms a gentle manifestation of the French flag (on its side) –which is appropriate because France itself is right there on the horizon. I like the clean simplicity and becalming quality of the whole image. No cars, no people, blue sky. Location, Deal, England