Where Land Runs Out consists of a series of unique camera-less cyanotypes on paper, which reflect the changing and fragile coastal landscape in the area around Shingle Street in Suffolk. This body of work forms part of a wider ongoing project based around Orford Ness and Shingle Street. Shingle Street is a small hamlet on the East coast of England consisting of a row of bungalows and old coastguard cottages looking directly out to the North Sea. The deep shingle beach is approximately one mile long, running south from the mouth of the River Alde, and faces Orfordness spit, which is to the North. It is listed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its flora, fauna and geology and is part of the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is a desolate landscape, with a vast open expanse of shingle, subject to coastal erosion and sea level rises. This area is a particularly vulnerable part of the coastline, exposed to rapid changes and at risk of disappearing. The juxtaposition of the isolated, contemplative environment and disruptive power of the sea also fascinates me. At low tide, and when the sea is calm, the waves break slowly and roll gently up to the shoreline. You can hear the gentle ebb and flow of the sea. As the tide comes in, and wind across the North Sea builds, the sounds intensify. The wind whistles across the shingle, waves crash as they hit the shore, pebbles wash up and down the beach again and again; the rhythmic sound building until it reaches its crescendo. Much of this is evidenced in the resulting images – signs of sediment washed on to the paper, water marks from the wind and crashing waves, the paper torn and creased; all showing how changeable and fragile this coastal landscape is.

To produce the prints, the paper was first hand coated with light sensitive cyanotype emulsion and left to dry. During periods of high and low tide, the paper was then physically immersed in the sea, capturing the fleeting traces of the waves, wind and sediment at the shoreline, and creating new, abstract landscapes. The images have not been fully fixed and so continue to subtly change over time, reflecting the constantly changing landscape.