Is a photo project ever finished?
New thoughts on a vanishing coastline.
Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.
It is approaching sunrise as I leave the car park and make my way along the edge of the estuary towards the sea. Ahead I can just make out the faint sound of the waves which are being drowned out by the raucous cries of the gulls. I look up to see them wheeling above me in a clear sky and shiver as the damp chill of the morning wraps round me. It has been frosty and the vegetation on the edge of the path glints in the half light of dawn. I step over the remains of a steel retaining wall and reach the beach where the shingle moves beneath each footstep and walking becomes much harder. Suddenly the stones stop and fall away to the sand below and I find myself standing on a shingle ridge sculpted by the sea. Below me the tide is a long way out and the exposed beach stretches towards the horizon where a bank of mist blurs the line between sky and water. Today is one of those new dawns which feels full of creative possibility and I am keen to find my first composition.
I am back at my local beach which became the subject of my Kingdom of Rust project. I haven’t been here for several weeks as I felt I had exhausted the location photographically, for a while at least. But then I got chatting to a friend and he told me that the beach was earmarked for some new sea defences and they were looking to begin work sometime in the next few months, constructing a new steel wall and laying hundreds of meters of granite rock armour. Once finished the beach would no longer be a photographic location, in fact parts of it would not be accessible at all.
This news prompted my return and I now find myself surveying a vast expanse of rippled sand, numerous lines of wooden groynes and an old steel wall that I am very familiar with. Maybe I am not finished with this beach after all. Maybe my Kingdom of rust project still has room to grow and evolve.
This beach is a strange place, a location of contrasts that feels neither natural nor completely man made. It is littered with old wooden groynes, triangular concrete structures and steel; material designed to keep the water at bay and the crumbling sandy cliffs protected. At the back of the beach stands ‘the wall’, the subject of my project and a structure that was erected to protect the historic site of Bawdsey Manor from the sea.
Built in 1886 this impressive building was a private residence until 1937 when it was sold to the air ministry and became the location for the development of RADAR. It is a distinctive building and an important part of the local coastline.
Bawdsey Manor and the cliffs upon which it sits didn’t feature in my initial project, as I didn’t feel they were part of the narrative. But maybe with the news of the new sea defences and the effects of erosion they are now very much a part of the story.
So is a photography project ever really finished? And what marks the end?
For me a project takes shape when I am inspired by an idea or a certain subject and I will usually pursue that until I feel I have nothing more to say. In the case of this project I made a zine and felt that this marked the end of my project. I knew I could make more images but realised I would probably be repeating myself. That was until this week when my curiosity was peaked again.
I began to feel I had something new to say.
I think this can often be the way. As time passes and we work on our projects, our perspective changes and so do our ideas. The more we learn and the more the project develops the greater the potential for the end goal to move. For me a project is never really finished until I have lost interest or have nothing further to say.
The ‘Kingdom of rust’ was about the steel wall at the back of the beach, but now I am finding the crumbling cliffs just as interesting, and I feel as if the beach that might vanish under a pile of granite boulders is crying out to have its story told.
This part of the coast, barricaded during the war and synonymous with the development of RADAR is now facing the threat of rising sea levels and rapid erosion. It is one of the fastest retreating coastlines in Europe and could soon disappear completely under a layer of granite protection or worse under the sea. I feel this is worthy of an extended project.
So this week I went back to the beach and did a sketchbook walk, exploring subjects and working out how I might be able to extend my project. I am drawn to two things - the crumbling cliffs (the land that needs protecting) and the sea defences (which are designed to protect) and the fragility of both of these elements when compared to the power of the sea. I love the colour of the cliffs and the colour of the rust in the steel and the similarity of both. I love the old wooden groynes and the steel wall and the details found in these structures and I feel there is a story linking all these elements.
I also find the threat of erosion and rising sea levels quite a powerful driver in the story and would like to explore this in a more creative way. I experimented with some multiple exposures mixing the wall with the textures in the sea and quite liked the results, but I am not really sure how far to take this or if to use it at all. It is however part of my thought process.
My recent visits to this beach have awoken my curiosity again for this place and my eye is seeing creative possibilities everywhere.
I think personal photography projects are never really finished. We may lose our curiosity for a subject over time, but as landscapes and subjects change and evolve so does our perspective and our creativity.
I think a project is only really finished when we lose interest or have nothing further to say. Until then all projects are a work in progress - at least they are for me.
What are your thoughts on personal projects and how they evolve. Do they stay in your thoughts long after they seem finished or do you move on to something new and forget them? I would be really interested to hear your thoughts on this, on my ideas for extending my project and anything else that this post inspires, so please join the conversation and leave a comment below.
Thank you very much for reading and until next time, enjoy your photography.
Gill
A superb set of colourful images. You are an inspiration. I fear that protecting the coast will be a losing battle, so it’s important to record what is there while there’s still time. So glad your mojo for that area has returned.
Thank you for sparking some thoughts for me to muse on regarding possible projects. I’m now feeling motivated to get back out with a camera proper, and start a project. I often find that I have random unconnected images, and like the idea of creating a more structured photo story/ project with them.