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