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Sea Change
“... a sense of threat as well as one of miracle attends Marten’s images. The people who fill his beaches at low tide seem often still to be there at high tide, invisibly in their fixed positions, fatally swallowed by metres of sea.”- Robert Macfarlane
Since 2003 Michael Marten has travelled to different parts of the British coast to photograph identical views at high and low tide, six or eighteen hours apart. His beautiful and surprising photographs reveal how the twice daily rhythm of ebb and flood can dramatically transform the landscape.
From holiday beaches to industrial estuaries, the photographs record two moments in time, two states of nature. Sea Change presents 53 of these diptychs, arranged as a journey around Britain, with an introduction by leading English nature writer Robert Macfarlane.
One aspect of what makes these photographs so compelling is the fascination of comparing each pair of pictures, spotting what has or hasn't changed. The contrasting views play with our sense of depth and perspective, and show how subjective is our perception of landscape.
The result is a substantial document capturing the variety of the British coastline, a portrait of the maritime landscape that makes visible in a dramatic new way the ebb and flow of tidal waters.
Since 2003 Michael Marten has travelled to different parts of the British coast to photograph identical views at high and low tide, six or eighteen hours apart. His beautiful and surprising photographs reveal how the twice daily rhythm of ebb and flood can dramatically transform the landscape.
From holiday beaches to industrial estuaries, the photographs record two moments in time, two states of nature. Sea Change presents 53 of these diptychs, arranged as a journey around Britain, with an introduction by leading English nature writer Robert Macfarlane.
One aspect of what makes these photographs so compelling is the fascination of comparing each pair of pictures, spotting what has or hasn't changed. The contrasting views play with our sense of depth and perspective, and show how subjective is our perception of landscape.
The result is a substantial document capturing the variety of the British coastline, a portrait of the maritime landscape that makes visible in a dramatic new way the ebb and flow of tidal waters.
126 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2012
8 people want to read
About the author
Michael Marten
27 books1 followerMichael Marten is affiliated with the Department of Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London (UK).
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December 31, 2012
Stunning publication that shows what appears to be a simple idea (photographing the difference between high and low tides), but involves a lot of leg work and tidal research. Marten's work captures the power of the tides--a force of nature in action.
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