Work · Wrackholme Sands

Groynes, Low Water

2023–2025 · 41 sheets exposed · 2 prints kept

The groynes at Wrackholme are the oldest surviving sea defence on this stretch and the least respected. They are replaced in sections, so the run is a record of four different carpenters and four different ideas about how long timber should last.

I photograph them from one position on the bank at dead low water, which happens twice a day and is useful for about forty minutes. The rest is waiting. Forty-one sheets over two winters; six prints.

A line of weathered timber groynes running out into flat shallow water over ribbed wet sand at low tide. — Groynes, low water Wrackholme Sands February 2024 neg. 4×5 fibre base, grade 2½ toner selenium 1:20, 6 min mean chroma 4.97

A single split and bolted groyne post standing in shallow water, filling the upright frame. — Seventh post from the bank Wrackholme Sands February 2024 neg. 4×5 fibre base, grade 3 toner selenium 1:20, 6 min mean chroma 4.05

The prints in this series

Both were toned in the same bath at 1:20 for six minutes and measure a mean chroma of 4.97 and 4.05. The difference between those two figures is the difference between the two photographs, not between two treatments: a print with more shadow in it takes more selenium, because there is more silver in it to convert.

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