DOWN TO THE BEACH (1959) BY RAYMOND CONRAD LAWSON

Raymond Conrad Lawson was making waves as a photographer in London until he met his future wife in the seaside town of Whitstable in Kent. Within 36 hours, he had decided to settle there. Having trained under the society portraitist Baron de Meyer (formerly of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar), and been among those chosen to take pictures at the 1948 Olympics and the Festival of Britain in 1951, Lawson instead became Whitstable’s parish photographer, a familiar face at christenings and communions.

At weekends, though, Lawson liked nothing better than to capture his family and friends on the shingle slopes of Tankerton Beach. Here, drinking tea on the right, is his wife, Alma.

The photograph is one of several by

Lawson featured in the exhibition Seaside: Photographed at Turner Contemporary in Margate, until Sept 8. turnercontemporary.org