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A study of subtle processes which form sand dune ranges
This series of photographs is produced on Perranporth’s sand dune range, on the North Coast of Cornwall over the winter of 2023. Its a print series consisting of microscopic, film and digital photography. Presented in narrow print to mimic the landscape.
Write Up
Sand dunes are formed by subtle processes called morpho-dynamics. Morpho-dynamics are the movement of fluid, wind and water, over a moving sand bed.
In the book ‘Spatial Recall’, Mark Treib wrote that “you cannot step in the same river twice, as the second time it is not the same river” [1] and the same applies with the morpho-dynamics of the dunes.
The dunes are dynamic and change in response to the weather, seasonal patterns, and their geological situation.
The onshore winds with the low tide, push sand back from the shore and build the dunes. The offshore wind and the high tide, pull sand back towards the water. These movements form the flow regime of the dune-scape, building the dunes and taking them back down.
The changes happen over a long period of time and are not so visible from a far. Instead, the natural process and change in the landscape is revealed at a smaller level, in the macro-interactions between the environment and weather. The images focus on this. Working through the vast landscape each shot takes something from a section of the natural zonation.
Creatively, the series is inspired by the image ‘Monument Valley’ by Tracey Emin [2]. Some of the images are long exposure taken in a field studio, in an attempt to portray some sounds of the environment, inspired from reading of ‘Tuned City; between space and sound’ by Gesine Pagels [3] . Finally, images are formatted on long 11x4-inch prints to mimic the long sweeping shape of the dune scape.