Worthing Beach: My Creative Retreat

I have lived in Worthing now for almost 20 years. During this time the beach has been a constant for me (obviously – it’s not going anywhere!).

For many of those years, the first thing I would do each morning (when I was free), was walk down to the beach and catch the sunrise, or if middle of the summer when the sunrise was too early, at least catch the beach and the sea when there was no-one else around; just me and the sea. Alone. Wonderful.

From about 2015 I started to treat fitness seriously, so many of my days started at the gym rather that the beach. I was probably making it to the beach one or two days a week.

 Then COVID happened. 

With no gym and even less work, I found myself re-acquainting myself with the sea. It felt like a long-lost friend. I hung on to the sounds and smells. The openness, the freedom (and the smugness that Dave and I had decided to put our well-being and home life above our work-life, remaining to live in Worthing when moving (back) to London would be so much better for our Careers).

During this period, to keep myself sane I shot a little project on the iPhone Low Beach Landscapes.

I returned to painting and drawing, taking on a beach side studio & retail space in December 2020, which I kept until August 2024 when I moved to Sabotage Gallery.

Running these businesses was great for my mind and sanity, but its not until I left Sabotage in July last year that I realised how little time off I had been giving myself over these past 5 years.

The studio may have been on the seafront but in many ways, it gave me less time on the actual beach.

 Return to the Beach 

This is a long winded way of saying this Easter is my first Easter break for 5 or 6 years.

Saturday I went for my first longish walk on the beach in maybe a few years.

I felt the peace and the calm, the smells, fresh air and the solitude of walking alone with a camera.

I also felt a sadness.

As I walked I must have passed thirty to fifty of these dead small-spotted catshark (dogfish).

When I got back I did a little research

Worthing beach has surface water outfalls that discharge after heavy rainfall, which can affect local seawater quality and potentially push marine life toward shore. These outfalls, combined with storm overflows and misconnections, are known to create turbid plumes that disorient bottom-dwelling species like small-spotted catshark .

I also passed a number of freely running outflows..

Are these related? Or is it coincidence?

I cannot be sure these are the reason for all of the fish dead on the beach but checking websites shows how poor Worthing’s sea water quality can be.

  

We all need downtime.

And I feel that..

Creatives need a subject they feel at peace with that they can return to again and again

The beach is my safe place. The subject that I feel at peace with.

There are so many ways of looking at most subjects. Many people go to the beach and only see the sand, the sea and the sun, feeling the fresh air, but there is so much more.

As there is with most subjects, there are always layers we, as photographers (and artists) can and should peel back.

This is my plan, to return to the beach, more and more. After all it is only 98 metres from my front door.

Let me know about your Safe subject..