Jonathan Olley – The Sea Wall – Andrews Masters Journey

Jonathan Olleys series ‘The Sea Wall’ focuses on the coastal defences of our island nation and how they impact on the land around them. These industrial landscapes are of a different kind in their way of intention. These manmade structures are there as a way of defence as opposed to exploitation of the land around us. Never the less they bare the marks of man-kinds impact on the planet. Poured concrete walls replace coal mines and power plants with the intentions of safeguarding our future rather than the inadvertent hindrance of it.

For my particular photographic interests the scene of the caravan park neighbouring a gas depot are quite striking and demonstrate the lengths some have gone to to live around the industries we rely upon. The immediate impressions are of a holiday park where rest and recreation are the name of the game, all the while being surrounded by a potential hazard to the immediate community. These potential holiday homes are likely to have been marketed under the guise of ‘taking in the sea air’ or ‘escaping the city’. All the while their sea view is obscured by a rising grass bank backed by concrete. This contrast of environments come together to remind us how we live with the relics of our industrial past.