East Anglia
The region of East Anglia occupies that part of the British Isles which protrudes with a proud and prominent pregnancy out into the North Sea.
First, the coast. On the one hand, East Anglia’s coastline plays host to a number of quaint and genteel towns that appear to be stubbornly (and mercifully) refusing to acknowledge the arrival and departure of the last 50 years. In these places it is forgivable to believe that time, arriving in the 1950s and falling instantly in love with what it saw, decided there and then to stand still.
On the other hand, the East Anglian coast is a victim of time’s inexorable momentum. It suffers from the paradox of a beauty born of its own destruction. The North Sea has been rolling relentlessly westwards for many centuries, and that encroachment will continue. An unlikely consequence of the sea’s insatiable hunger is a coastline of a sad but strangely surreal beauty. Farmland, woodland, buildings and roads disintegrate, becoming bizarre and unlikely beach features as the land supporting them surrenders to the territorial ambitions of the North Sea.
Further inland and away from the changing coastline, East Anglia is a region blessed in its variety of landscapes. From the gentle, undulating hills and valleys of the Suffolk countryside and the wide, expansive fens of Cambridgeshire; to the salt marshlands of Essex and the famous Norfolk Broads, there is arguably more diversity in East Anglia’s landscapes than in any other part of the country.
If there is one element that these varied land and seascapes have in common, it is the element of light. The region is justifiably renowned for the quality and clarity of a light liberally dispensed by the magnificently broad skies described by Constable as the landscape’s 'chief organ of sentiment'.
It is this light, and its complementary relationship with the region’s diverse and changing landscape, which this gallery sets out to explore, celebrate and share.
First, the coast. On the one hand, East Anglia’s coastline plays host to a number of quaint and genteel towns that appear to be stubbornly (and mercifully) refusing to acknowledge the arrival and departure of the last 50 years. In these places it is forgivable to believe that time, arriving in the 1950s and falling instantly in love with what it saw, decided there and then to stand still.
On the other hand, the East Anglian coast is a victim of time’s inexorable momentum. It suffers from the paradox of a beauty born of its own destruction. The North Sea has been rolling relentlessly westwards for many centuries, and that encroachment will continue. An unlikely consequence of the sea’s insatiable hunger is a coastline of a sad but strangely surreal beauty. Farmland, woodland, buildings and roads disintegrate, becoming bizarre and unlikely beach features as the land supporting them surrenders to the territorial ambitions of the North Sea.
Further inland and away from the changing coastline, East Anglia is a region blessed in its variety of landscapes. From the gentle, undulating hills and valleys of the Suffolk countryside and the wide, expansive fens of Cambridgeshire; to the salt marshlands of Essex and the famous Norfolk Broads, there is arguably more diversity in East Anglia’s landscapes than in any other part of the country.
If there is one element that these varied land and seascapes have in common, it is the element of light. The region is justifiably renowned for the quality and clarity of a light liberally dispensed by the magnificently broad skies described by Constable as the landscape’s 'chief organ of sentiment'.
It is this light, and its complementary relationship with the region’s diverse and changing landscape, which this gallery sets out to explore, celebrate and share.