Work · Hask Bay

Storm Beach

2021–2025 · 96 sheets exposed · 2 prints kept

A storm beach is one of the few landforms that changes fast enough to photograph as a sequence and slowly enough to find again. The crest at Hask Bay has moved eleven metres landward since I started and the stones are visibly smaller at the north end.

The rule is that the tripod goes back in the same three holes. Everything else in the frame is allowed to argue.

A storm-thrown shingle bank of wet rounded flint pebbles rising to a crest, flat grey sea beyond. — The bank, after the surge Hask Bay December 2024 neg. 4×5 fibre base, grade 2 toner selenium 1:20, 6 min mean chroma 6.93

An upright frame looking straight down at wet graded shingle, the stones sorted small to large. — Crest, north end Hask Bay December 2024 neg. 4×5 fibre base, grade 3 toner selenium 1:20, 6 min mean chroma 9.18

The prints in this series

Both were toned in the same bath at 1:20 for six minutes and measure a mean chroma of 6.93 and 9.18. 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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