All This Useless Beauty

Climate change is a significant problem that affects us all. Although a few may still deny that human intervention is the primary cause, the fact that changes are happening cannot be denied. It’s a polemical issue with many possible consequences, one of which is the exponential rise of sea levels. We don’t know how quickly the sea level will rise, but it’s generally accepted that it will happen. One of the more severe scenarios predicts sea level rises of 14m, dramatically changing much of the British coastline, with large expanses of low-lying land disappearing completely. An area that would be seriously affected lies along the South East Coast: the flat, expansive areas of Romney Marsh and Dungeness, for example, where I took most of the photographs, with others from around the crumbling cliffs of Beachy Head and the South Wales coast.

These pictures highlight the risk of climate change and the landscapes that will eventually disappear altogether because of damage we are inflicting upon our planet.

Taken on black and white, medium format film, the images link a subject matter that is vanishing with a medium that is also nearing invalidity. The harsh contrast and soft focus gives the subject matter an abstract feel, signifying this abstract place that once existed but was lost.

The photographs show bleak but striking landscapes, some already affected by the expanding sea. They give a sense of the finite amount of time we have to make a difference; a celebration of the beauty that in a few years will be lost to the sea and forever forgotten.