A Timeless Dialogue: Hastings Beach Through Three Decades

This photomontage is built around a dialogue between two moments on the same beach, separated by roughly three decades. The black-and-white photograph was taken thirty years ago, while the colour image was made in 2025. Together they explore memory, place and photography itself.

The distinctive shingle of Hastings beach appears almost timeless. Although individual stones have undoubtedly shifted over the course of thirty years, the beach as a whole retains its familiar character. This constancy provides an anchor for the work. After taking the earlier photograph, I noticed a small fragment of decorated pottery resting among the pebbles—a modest trace of human presence beside the manufactured material that conveniently frames one of Hastings’ iconic fishing boats, resting on the beach and identified by its registration number, RX87.

The contemporary colour photograph functions almost as an archaeological surface from which the earlier image emerges. It suggests that the past is not separate from the present but embedded within it, waiting to be rediscovered.

The fishing vessel dominates the composition through a low viewpoint and strong central perspective. Its bow rises monumentally, almost architectural in scale, while a solitary figure standing near the sea appears tiny by comparison. This contrast reinforces themes of labour, tradition and the enduring relationship between people and the sea. The expansive, dramatic sky further emphasises the boat’s imposing presence while lending the scene a sense of timelessness.

The fishing boat and the beach both belong to Hastings’ long maritime history, yet they exist on different temporal scales. Boats are repaired or replaced, timber decays and photographs gradually fade, while the pebbles are endlessly rearranged by the tides. The work asks what truly endures. Is it the landscape, the traditions of the fishing community, or the photographic image that preserves experience?

The composition also plays with scale and time. The earlier photograph occupies only part of the frame, while the contemporary colour image surrounds it. This creates the impression that memory inhabits a specific, bounded space within the wider continuum of the present. The beach extends beyond the edges of the historic photograph, suggesting that time continues while particular moments remain preserved within it.

The figure in the earlier photograph is my partner, Hazuan Hashim. Thirty years later, Hazuan was once again standing beside me on the same beach, watching the sea as I made the contemporary photograph in 2025. That quiet continuity adds a deeply personal thread to the work, connecting not only two photographs but two lives across three decades.