Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, opening date

The exhibition examines the relationship between photographers, photography and the British seaside from the 1850s to the present. The Exhibition presents the seaside in a multitude of different visions, celebrating our special relationship with our coast.

Images of hotel life, the beach, the holiday camp, dressing up and dressing down, wild waves, hotel interiors and coastlines all combine to create a rich and constantly changing picture of the British seaside. The curators have included unknown works from across photography’s history as well as images by such celebrated photographers as Jane Bown (1925-2014), Vanley Burke (1951-), Anna Fox (1961-), Martin Parr (1952-), and Ingrid Pollard (1953-).

Personal and social histories are captured by camera by the sea. The exhibits include Raymond Lawson’s remarkable chronicles of family life in Whitstable (1959), Enzo Ragazzini’s images of the anarchy of the 1970 Isle of Wight festival and Stuart Griffiths’ bleak documentation of the 1990 rave scene in Brighton.

Grace Robertson records the raucous goings-on of a woman’s day out to the coast in the 1950s, while Daniel Meadows, Barry Lewis and Dafydd Jones all photographed at Butlins in the 1970s. A more intimate narrative is revealed in the photographs that preserve the seaside haven created by composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears, partners in music and in life.

In April 2019 the WILD Young Parent’s Project, in partnership with Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, commissioned photographer Steve Tanner to work with the Mums and Dads in their West Cornwall groups to investigate their relationship to the sea. What is the reality for them of living in this remote, rural county that so many people escape to on holiday?

The project concluded in December 2020 with an invitation to poet Ella Frears to work with the Mums and Dads to capture their thoughts and feeling in print. The outcomes of this sustained partnership form a new addition to the main exhibition.