As regular readers of this blog will be aware, I have been struggling to get words down on ‘paper’ in the last few weeks – being distracted by small, yet important tasks that do not always add up to anything significant to write about.  Today I vowed to make headway but was promptly distracted by the stunning weather outside.

I have been thinking about a project that I call Beach Graffiti for a while now.  I am always fascinated by what each tide leaves on the beach – seaweed, shells, starfish, jellyfish and other treasures that often glint in the sunshine.  These random objects and living things form natural shapes and textures on the beach, as the tide leaves them to languish before once again lifting them into the tender, and not so tender movement of the incoming tide.  I decide to take my iPhone, a sure indication that I want to play with my photography, rather than taking it too seriously.  As I walk across the beach with the two dogs – Henry and Freddie – I start to frame a few images.

As the strength of the winter sun intensifies I become more interested in the patterns of the water and sand.

It is easy to become lost in the constant but ever-changing shape and movement of water.

These images have more than a passing resemblance to some that I took last spring as part of The Shape of Water Collection.  However, what is interesting is that the low light of winter produces much better contrast of light and shade, giving a better rendering of the shape of water.  This will be important if I decide to take further images on this theme.

And finally, in search of beach graffiti, or the shape of water (I am not sure which!) I take some short videos which again provide an insight into Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology.  This time using the shape of water and beach graffiti to merge together and create endless emergence and withdrawal of objects.  As I said in my previous blog, I need to improve my skills in producing video work, but at this stage my iPhone is useful in capturing the ideas that I might revisit with my DSLR.