analogue cypher © Lilly Schwartz 2012

I like that this picture is almost black and white, but not quite. Strange what you can find when you wander around a city for a bit.

Today I saw a short documentary about Martin Parr. He’s English and has these interesting projects where he focuses on sort of very English phenomena. What I liked the most were his pictures of families out for the day at the coast, in the midst of litter and these very run down English coastal towns. It reminded me of the few times I actually went to the beach in Brighton in summer. For some strange reason I almost never did that although I lived in Brighton for 3 years. Maybe it’s because I lived on campus for a long time and also because I never really stayed in Brighton over the summer. However, another reason could be that going to Brighton beach is not exactly the greatest experience in the world. It’s a pebble beach, so it’s uncomfortable, and if the sun is out it’s just really packed, even if it’s absolutely freezing. And then there is also the sunscreen problem … for some reason Brits don’t really believe in that sort of thing and in no time the beach is not only packed, but packed with crab red people with skin peeling off. It’s just not a pretty sight at all.

By the way, I actually went to the beach more than a few times, but mostly in autumn or winter when the wind is almost blowing you over and within minutes your fingers seem to be frozen stiff. I actually preferred that to those crab people in summer …