RETURN SEASIDE SHELTERS TO THEIR FORMER GLORIES
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as the one in Deal, Kent, is very but is nonetheless striking. e Scottish shelters are much utilitarian and not as decorative the fact designers realised just much of a battering they were to take from the weather.” l, 32, took most of his pictures autumn and winter when the rs were empty. when he found t hem pied, the people using them d to be interested in his project appy to be pictured. aid: “The hardest shot to get was van, Ayrshire. ove three hours to get the picture hen I arrived, there was a whole of camper vans parked around no one about to move them. I just take the picture regardless but I think, in a way, it adds to it.” The photographer hopes his images will inspire and encourage councils across the UK to repair and restore their seaside shelters to their former glory.
Will said: “It would be such a shame if they disappeared forever. At least I have documented a few for future generations.”
Will, who now lives in Dorking, Surrey, got his publishing deal after appearing on BBC Two show Coast.
He said: “I got an email from a publishers asking if I fancied doing a book and an exhibition and I thought, ‘ Why not?’ as it would mean taking the shelters to a wider audience.”
Architecture and design critic Edwin Heathcote, who has written a piece in Will’s book, said: “There is nothing, quite possibly, more British than the seaside shelter – the sense it t embodies of a struggle against t the elements, the loneliness of a small structure outlined against the e vast horizon of the sea on a rainy day y and the optimism of a day out at the e seaside despite the weather.”
An exhibition of Will’s work finishes s its run today at the HENI Gallery y London.
He said : “I ’ ve had posit ive e feedback from people saying they y hadn’t given the huts a second thought in yearss but my pictures have brought ought back wonderful memoemories of happy family ily trips to the seaside.” e.”
Sunday Mail