Reading · both feet on the ground

For all my many gripes about the UK, I cannot deny it this: we do the seaside very well. It’s one of the joys of living on an island, the fact that you are simply never more than a few hours from the sea (although as a child growing up in the West Midlands, pretty much as far from the coast as it’s possible to be in Britain, a few hours felt plenty far enough). The alluring thing about a trip to the seaside, for me, is that there are so many things it could mean - from steep chalky cliffs in the south east to the rocky red Jurassic coast; from idyllic Cornish fishing villages that seem to tumble into the sea to the vast open sands of north Norfolk where, at low tide, you almost want to give up on walking before you get far enough for the waves to lap your toes. But what I like most of all is grungy seaside; kitsch and steeped in nostalgia; not quite seedy but close. It’s fish and chips closely guarded from seagulls; 99 flakes on a fairy-lit pier; buckets and spades and a rosy glow of almost-sunburn. This is a selection of photos which I hope captures exactly that feeling, taken over several summers, on several different films, and in several different seaside towns.

This is the eighth instalment of my monthly photo post series. You can see the first five instalments here: saxony on film and vestland on film and saxony on film (winter edition) and the big apple on film (2018) and highlands on film and copenhagen on film and amsterdam on film. These posts are light on text and heavy on photos.