A day at the pier with an Olympus DC 35

The British seaside is an odd place. Many places that once were mighty have fallen deeply into disrepair and dispair. There are however some things we can expect from any trip. Gulls flocking to pick the detritus from the bins. Humanity flocking to chip shops produce the detritus for the gulls. People who looked at one to many Martin Parr image and thought… I could do that. Can’t be too hard.

These are noisy places in the summer. Full of slow moving people being buzzed by the rush of youth. The youth want to make the most of a probable day trip. The not youth to take up yet another long day of the summer school holidays as cheaply as possible. Finding places to step out of the push and pull of the slow and the speed can be difficult. But they are there.

I like to find the places that the people don’t always want to go. It’s not that I don’t like people, I just like the spaces between them. Some sort of liminal human space if there is such a thing. Looking around the hotspot. Trying to find the odd particle that has diffused out if it’s normal context, into somewhere it normally wouldn’t stray. Click. Why were you there? Are you lost? No matter, you made me smile.

But it wouldn’t be the British seaside holiday without a few steadfast sure things. “I am at the beach. I will wear shorts and a T-shirt, no matter the temperature. I will walk the pier. I will have and ice-cream. Careful dear, the gulls are amassing.”

While the Victorian heyday of the summer seafront holiday has passed, the remnants have remained and retain aspects of their former self. Aspects that have stood fast against months of rain and grim winter weather to wait for the three days a year when it truly is a Great British Summer Day and they bear the weight of humanity in all its forms.

But let’s be honest. Let’s call a spade a spade. Let’s admit that the chips aren’t that good. That the amusements simply aren’t. That inside can frequently be a worse choice for the other 362 days of the Normal British Winter Day beach holiday. Especially if it looks at the outside.

So why not, let’s don our macintosh our cagoule our souwester and step out into the light drizzle and get on with it. Who knows what tomorrow may be like.

All images taken with my second Olympus DC 35 and a roll of ProImage 100. The first Olympus 35 DC *sigh* it came home with me from Japan and was used extensively until I killed it by accidentally pouring a pint of beer over it. Such a perfect little rangefinder. Light and small and with an excellent 40 mm lens. So I bought another. It’s not quite as perfect as the first one. Maybe…maybe I have to go back to that little shop in Taito City and get another perfect one? ProImage 100…it’s ok. Not my favourite. But that’s ok. It was fun to play at being a lower form of Martin Parr for a while.

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