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Caroline Taylor
'Salty Chips, Peeling Paintwork and
the Sound of the Sea'
'The English Seaside is not like the rest of the country. It has different smells, sounds and sights. The salty tang of the chip shop mingles with the scent of stale beer as you pass a busy seafront pub, the sound of waves fuses with the arcade chimes and crumbling modernist ice cream parlours sit next to sprawling mechanical arms of fair ground rides.
'Touch and taste are there too; if you are lucky you may find them in the alley behind the local disco, or if unlucky it could be a fist in the nose and a taste of your own blood. No one can say the seaside doesn’t retain its element of thrill. The coast is the place where we let go, where we can be someone else and escape. Whether it is riding a donkey, screaming on the scenic railway or just laying in the sun with a beer until we turn red, the seaside offers a licence to change our routine and our view.
'In decline since the advent of the cheap package holiday, the seaside resorts of the South East have tried re-inventing themselves but to little avail. What they had in there heyday is still the best they have to offer and even those who say they find them tacky revel in crazy golf, bingo and kiss-me-quick humour given the chance. Post-modern irony or family short break, the seaside can do either. Is that peeling burger bar frontage simply decaying or is it pop art?
'Despite not looking, sounding or selling like the majority of England, our seaside towns somehow retain their sense of Englishness more than the rest of the country. The coastal towns suck up all that is English, paint it in pastel shades, scent it with vinegar and cover it in neon before spitting it back along the promenade. The beach hut is the home away from home that puts the sand in sandwiches, the Union flag flutters from sandcastle or strip joint and sometime, just sometimes, the sun shines.'
Iain Aitch lives in Margate and is the author of ‘A Fete Worse Than Death – A Journey Through an English Summer.’
(Click here for Iain Aitch's website.)
Caroline is a photographer based in East London.
She graduated in Photographic Arts in 2004 at the University of Westminster, London. She is a contributor to Millennium Images Ltd and Onimage. She has had recent documentary work published and in the last three years has shown at several joint exhibitions.
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Caroline Taylor |
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www.carolinetaylor.co.uk AXIS artist web page Millennium Images Onimage |
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