The British coastline is often reduced to extremes, either the vitality of the seaside resort or the melancholy of towns in retreat. This project resists both simplifications. It looks instead for nuance, for the layered and often contradictory realities that exist beyond these stereotypes.
As an island nation, it is striking how easily our geographic margins are overlooked. We orient ourselves inward, toward cities, infrastructures, and centres of activity, while the boundaries that define us remain, in many ways, peripheral to our attention.
And yet, these edges in so many ways define us. They shape climate, culture, and history; they hold traces of defence, hospitality, migration, and memory. To stand on the coastline is to reflect on history and national identity.
At the Outer Edges
This long-term study is an attempt to look more carefully, and more patiently, at these places. Working with analogue film allows for a slower engagement, a more considered approach that mirrors the rhythms of the landscape itself. Each image becomes an act of attention, an acknowledgement of presence.
What emerges is not a single, cohesive narrative, but a constellation of moments, quiet, complex, and often unresolved. Together, they offer a different way of seeing the coast: not as an edge to be defined or consumed, but as a space to reflect and consider.
In these outer reaches, there is no singular story, only the ongoing dialogue between land, sea, and those who find themselves tied to the nation’s edgelands.
