About the project

The Sea has always fascinated me…

I was lucky to grow up in Dorset, a beautiful part of the Country and we had an amazing coastline right on our doorstep. The sea always fascinated me, and the draw of living by the sea has always been strong. I have always lived by the coast, even when at University I chose Liverpool and take train rides to Crosby and Southport to be by the sea.

Living by the sea has held this romantic appeal to me, and the idea of being able to open the curtains and watch the power of the sea right outside your house seems the ultimate location to live to me. During the covid lockdowns when we were limited to where we could go, I missed the sea, although I only live a few miles inland on the Island for a period I didn’t even see the sea, and the first place I went when we were allowed to move about a bit more was St. Catherines for a healthy dose of Vitamin Sea.

Since taking up photography many of my images have featured the houses and communities along the coast of the Isle of Wight such as Steephill cove above and this grew into the idea for this project. To capture the essence of living by the sea, the beauty the drama but also the cost, the cost in terms of defending these houses from the encroaching sea, and the coast to the coastline of this development and constant need to improve sea defences. And this will be the focus for this project.