Our Sepia Saturday image for this week features a lonely soul sat on the beach in Bridlington in 1922. My photograph moves forward nineteen years and switches coast from the East to the West coast of England. The print comes from one of the photograph albums of my Uncle, Frank Fieldhouse, and therefore we know precisely when and where the photograph was taken. It shows the sands at St Annes On Sea and it was taken in 1941. You might be tempted to think that it is the miserable dull weather that is responsible for the isolated souls who had taken to the beach, but it is - of course - the year. This was 1941 and World War II was at its height, and the Lancashire coastal area was coming under heaver attack from enemy bombing raids almost on a daily basis. It may seem strange, in these circumstances, that people would still visit the seaside and even sit on deckchairs to watch the sea go out (and the bombing raids come in!). These, however, were different times and different people: people whose measure of danger had taken on a whole new scale.
I couldn't resist leaving the subject of "Alone on the Beach" without sharing a photograph that I took some 25 years after the St Annes photograph. This is a photograph I took in Ireland and it shows two nuns walking along a totally deserted beach. Different times, different people.
Just love the first photo. It may seem desolate, but to me it represents optimism and a will to live a full life -- and to make sure children experience joy -- even in the hardest times. The second photo is wonderful also. My late mom taught at a church school, so we were always surrounded by nuns growing up. This photo reminds me of her.
ReplyDeleteYour second picture taken in Ireland with the nuns is amazing - not only in its beautiful content, but it could pass for a lovely painting as well the way the shadows play in the water and on the beach. Magnificent.
ReplyDeleteThat stony St Annes beach looks typical of a lot of English beaches although I know they’re not all like that, and your beautiful Irish beach photo with the nuns reminds me of Achill Island off County Mayo.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, taking kids to a beach in 1941...braver people than I am!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you could share the context for both photos. Makes them all the more meaningful. The last does look like a painting.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous landscapes.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful images. Landscapes where the sea meets the sand have special symbolism. The powerful force of water versus the static resistance of solid earth. On land we can stand in safety, on water we are always in peril. And it's odd that no matter which beach you are on, the horizon is always the same distance and in the same plane to the eye.
ReplyDeleteThe 1941 photo is hauntingly beautiful -- as is the story.
ReplyDeleteThe Irish photograph is stunning, and i enjoyed seeing the St. Anne’s image, as my parents lived there in the final years of their lives and I introduced my daughter to the beach there. ,
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