Documenting The Bay – An Archive of Personal Photographs
My art practice is an ongoing relationship with places; a way of inhabiting, understanding, or even communicating with the world around me. During my daily practice of walking on Morecambe Bay, where I live, I am constantly learning about the landscape, its history, and my own relationship to it. So, when I stop to take a photo, I am acknowledging this and keeping a record. My archive of photographs of this stretch of coast span over 10 years and it continues to grow, evolve and inform my practice. I have since begun to add video, sound recordings and field notes to the archive, which has taken the work in new directions. This is a small example of my explorations and discoveries – there are thousands of photos in the archive.
Morecambe Bay is situated on the Lancashire and Cumbria coastline, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. Covering an area of 320 square kilometers, it is the largest area of intertidal mudflats and sand in the UK. The area where I walk is about 6 miles north of Morecambe itself. Covering about a couple of miles in each direction it encompasses the very last area to be covered by the tide on its daily journey in and out of The Bay.