A new exhibition, England-on-Sea, by photographer Brent Jones is drawn from a nationwide tour of the English coast—a series of road trips to all points of the coastline, made over several years.
Supported by Dorset National Landscape as a contribution to the Bridport 24—Town of Culture celebrations, the exhibition is installed free for everyone to experience.
Living and working from the back of a Ford van, Brent set out to explore the coastal landscape and how we interact with it and to each other.
England-on-Sea is a detailed exploration of the seaside, a place so embedded in our nation’s psyche and national identity that it reflects our changing population and behaviour. Focussing on the collective rather than the individual, the exhibition highlights English peculiarities and eccentricities as well as the more mundane scenes of everyday seaside life.
After a pandemic that threatened to break many of the constraints that bind our societies, this was an opportunity to record our reemerging population.
‘Against the backdrop of Brexit, COVID, the climate emergency, and economic recession, I felt this was a particularly pertinent moment to record our nation at leisure’ Brent explained.
The ‘road trip’ and the coast, have long been an inspiration for documentary photographers and artists alike, both on these shores and abroad. Many of these have provided inspiration for this project, including Alec Soth, Stephen Shore, Simon Roberts and L S Lowry.
‘My approach was to decide the composition, set up the camera with a fixed viewpoint, and settle down for the great British public to populate the scene!’ said Brent.
The Dorset National Landscape team were very pleased to support the new exhibition, as Culture Officer Sue Dampney explains: ‘Many photographers have tried to capture the essence of Dorset’s beautiful land and seascapes but there is always one important thing missing—people! National Landscapes aren’t just places for wildlife, they are places for people to live and work, a ‘natural health service’ for all to enjoy. We hope England-on-Sea will get you thinking about what you love about the coast, what makes it special to you and how you might play a part in its future.’
The exhibition will be in West Bay until January. The twenty images in this outdoor exhibition represent a small selection from the full collection, which can be seen at www.brentjones.co.uk/England-on-Sea.
