Galleries » Coast
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Coast
Britain no longer has any wilderness, a truth hard to accept. Plenty of wildness, but no sizeable tract that remains totally in its natural condition. Sections of the North West Highlands of Scotland are probably as near as we get to wilderness in Britain. Even then it won't be long before you have to stand back to let a quad bike pass or make way for a stalking party's eight-wheeled Argocat.
However, not all is lost for lovers of wild places eager for that wilderness experience. There is a last refuge: the coast. And coast is something Britain has in abundance. We will rule out the pier at Bognor Regis and Blackpool's Pleasure Beach, but that that still leaves thousands of miles of landscape that remains in its natural state (double that when the tide is out).
Coast is where I feel most strongly how nature's inherent clarity and complexity exist simultaneously: the still, clear rock pool into which I stare and appreciate a greater depth. The meeting of land, sea and sky is such a dynamic all-year-round combination. There are so many edges and the mixture of nature's most powerful forces means a never stationary landscape that throws up something magical each time you visit. Add to this the anticipation that sunrise and sunset bring, plus the uncertainty of what a retreating tide will reveal, and you have a landscape photographer's paradise. The ideal location.