Andy Hughes

Intertidal habitats or littoral areas are divided into vertical zones like bands. The names that are often used to describe these zones are the spray zone, high tide zone, middle tide zone, and low tide zone. Intertidal regions are often used by humans both for food and recreation.

‘Zonation’ is an ongoing series of  work-in-progress begun in the summer of 2009 and is a development which seems a retreat from his recent close up work. The photographed locations are known to him as places of both contemplation and places to surf. In these new photographs the camera peers down from the cliff edge, the 6×7 film frame records the activity of both tide and human interaction. Sometimes a touch of the horizon peeps into the frame edge, the white of the surf and the shape of minuscule figures along the waters edge explore the workings of natural wave corrasion and human pastimes such as bathing, surfing or walking. The seemingly anonymous figures of surfers, walkers and the array of paraphernalia are explored visually and metaphorically.