littoral a & n 1 a. Of or on the shore. 2. n. Region lying along the shore. . . OED.
English Littoral
Looking at a pile of English Black and White magizines in June 2007 I was struck by the number of people currently making square black and white pictures on English beaches. Here, from 1970s, are the first ones in this genre
Viewed from 2008, thirty years later, these images still remind me of the desolate beaches I haunted as a child These beaches were re-visted during an introspective period in the late 1970s
I made a new series of prints of them in the mid 1980s, which I still treasure. Now that I have found a source of Ilford Galerie (silver jelly) from England I plan to print some more in this series, concurrently with my new Australian Littoral work
All images on this website are copyright John Austin 2010 unless otherwise stated
Severn Beach is at the end of a tiny suburban railway running from Bristol in north Somerset. A feature of Severn Beach is, or was, an abandoned swimming pool and amusement area - in the 1970s already desolate. Severn Beach ceased to be a weekend resort for Bristol as travel became easier and toxic effluent from nearby industry poisoned the area
The English Littoral is now being revisited in sprit with my work at Broke Inlet, part of the Australian Littoral