Sun N Sea

Having done 2 of my last 4 personal projects in close proximity of the sea, its no surprise to anyone that I have start my new project, along the coast. This time, it is much closer to home, on the British south coast. I won't go into details now except that unlike my Labrador and Texas Projects, I will actually shoot the sea this time. Since there will be some seascapes involved, I just wanted to share some of my favorites I came across during my research. There are lots of photographers who have shot the sea this way with a different degrees of success. There will be similarities in my images but there will also be one significant difference. Images will be posted here first when they are ready.

©Hiroshi Sugimoto

©Maria Luisa Morando

©Tim White

©Tim White

...and my favorite

©Fabien Baron 

Polaroid Snowmen

When the snow came down on Sunday night, my instinctive desire was to go out and walk on the fresh snow, follow closely by building a snowman. My 2 year old daughter couldn't care less (she will) and my wife and I ended up building it ourselves. 

I have always loved snowman, they never look like the one Aled Jones walked in the air with, instead, they are lob sided, and imperfect, eyes made out of anything from cocktail stick to cigarette buds. But I guess that's what so appealing about them.

Came Monday night, 80% of the snowmen around where I lived have been decapitated by drunken young men coming out after their last orders. They sprung up just as quickly as they are destroyed. I wanted to photograph the last few standing.

Then I remembered the box of out of date  5/4 polaroids I have had for 3 years. They weren't kept in very good conditions and I knew they were ruined. It seems fitting that these light leaked, colour shifted, brilliant yet extinct products should be used up to photograph these beautifully flawed, soon to be extinct snowmen. 

When I was waiting for each image to develop in the freezing cold, I was reminded of the magic of instant films. It's a shame as this is probably the last time I will be shooting polaroids.