Third and last part of my investigation into ‘Summer’ photography. Entertaining, sunny, relaxing, crowded, popular, we love it or we hate it: the beach is an inspiration for many photographers. It attracts everyone everywhere on the planet and its universality makes it an interesting and unavoidable social phenomenon to observe and analyze. So far we’ve been to Italy, France, China, Czech Republic, Spain and Brazil. To finish our around the world trip, let’s see what going to the beach means for people in Holland, the UK and the US.
Isabella Rozendaal
As a kid in France I used to travel every summer with my parents to one of the French or Spanish coasts to enjoy a month by the sea. Like a ritual, every year we would pack the car and drive south to reach a new and sunnier destination. It was not about the road trip but more about the stay: the tent, the swimming pool or the beach where all the kids would meet everyday, the lunches and dinners outdoors, my dad listening to the ‘Tour de France’ on his radio and my mum reading a book and gossiping with our campsite neighbors. In a book called ‘En masse, how Holland holidays’ that is exactly what Isabella Rozendaal depicts with humor and honesty. Of course I also remember the Dutch “invading” French or Spanish campsites every summer. It was for us a good way to practice our English!
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| Isabella Rozendaal |
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| Isabella Rozendaal |
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| Isabella Rozendaal |
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| Isabella Rozendaal |
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| Isabella Rozendaal |
Chloe Dewe Mathews
A quick glimpse at Chloe Dewe Mathews images and you might think you’re somewhere in Israel. As much as Gilian Laub’s images of Tel Aviv (that you might have discovered last week on Time: http://lightbox.time.com/2011/10/10/israeli-beach-gillian-laub/#13) might shake up a few clichés about Jewish people and could have been taken in Spain or Rio, Chloe Dewe Mathews’photographs reveal a totally unknown part of England. ‘Hasidic holiday’ is about the small seaside town of Aberystwyth in Wales. Every summer for the last 20 years it has become the meeting place of the British orthodox Jewish community looking for a peaceful retreat far from the noisy partying British crowds. Chloe’s images show us once again how aesthetic and artistic beauty can transcend a documentary style and reveal the power of photography.
You should also check out her compelling series Caspian, where she introduces us to life near the Caspian Sea, the world largest inland sea, between Asia and Europe.
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| Chloe Dewe Mathews |
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| Chloe Dewe Mathews |
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| Chloe Dewe Mathews |
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| Chloe Dewe Mathews |
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| Chloe Dewe Mathews |
Nguan
When you think about American beaches, what comes to mind? Miami, Hawaii, Venice beach, Santa Cruz maybe. Most foreigners and tourists don’t know that there is a beach in New York. And here it is: Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It should probably have a sign at the entrance that says ‘Not for tourists’ because that is how it feels when you look at Nguan’s photographs. Nguan takes pictures at the beach as he does in the streets, sometimes invisible, sometimes with people’s approval. Candid, spot on, humoristic, colorful, his photographs show life and humanity.
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| Nguan |
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| Nguan |
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| Nguan |
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| Nguan |
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| Nguan |
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