Misrach’s images were taken on the back of a terror attack in Washington where Misrach was concerned for his son who was nearby. He took the images from the balcony of his hotel. On one hand, the viewer sees simply people enjoying the seaside but there is an ominous sense of vulnerability through the isolation of the subjects in the images. This was the effect I had intended with my final image of Assignment three.
I had been walking back along the cliff as I knew the tide was coming in and that the exit from the beach is cut off quite early on as the tide comes in. As I looked down not the beach from the cliff-top (which is precarious in itself as there are frequent landfalls) initially I saw children playing in the small strip of beach that was still available. My instinct was one of apprehension as I wondered if they would be cut off. I then spotted a chap lying on a towel talking on his phone seemingly oblivious to the incoming tide. It captured for me how we humans are ‘looking the other way’ in relation to Climate change and potential impending environmental disaster.
Whilst Misrach claims his intention was to show the human relationship with nature, he also wanted to show “the bigger sublime picture of things”. (Richard Misrach’s Ominous Beach Photographs, n.d.)
References
Smithsonian Magazine. n.d. Richard Misrach’s Ominous Beach Photographs. [online] Available at: <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/richard-misrachs-ominous-beach-photographs-979981/> [Accessed 19 November 2020].
Landscape, Place and Environment 