Photographer captures vanishing world of Norfolk's changing shore

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 31 Oct, 07:20 · Archive

Artist Stephen Hyatt-Cross has published a book of photographs documenting the abandoned fishing boats and debris on Pakefield beach near Lowestoft.

Artist and photographer Stephen Hyatt-Cross has published a new book titled 'broken boats cloaked figures', a record of the changing shoreline near Lowestoft. Hyatt-Cross, who completed a BA in Fine Art at Norwich School of Art and Design, is based in Lowestoft and has spent considerable time on Pakefield beach taking photographs without a specific preconceived purpose.

The beach holds the remnants of a working fishing heritage. Hyatt-Cross describes finding about twenty abandoned fishing boats and a similar number of winches, mostly derelict. He photographed wooden boats with rotted hulls, a fibreglass vessel sawn in half that became a rubbish skip, and rusted winches alongside splinters of wood, nails and wire hawsers scattered across the sand.

The landscape has shifted recently. The local council has cleared much of the clutter away and tidied the beach. Of the boats that remain, Hyatt-Cross notes that only one is occasionally put to use. His photographs capture both the daily life of the shore—children playing, dog walkers, couples eating fish and chips on the cliff top—and the traces of an industry that has largely vanished.

How it is being reported

• Capturing a vanishing worldIt is a book by artist and photographer Stephen Hyatt-Cross which is an important and compelling record of a vanishing world... our changing shoreline.Norwich Evening News · 31 Oct, 06:00
• Capturing a vanishing worldIt is a book by artist and photographer Stephen Hyatt-Cross which is an important and compelling record of a vanishing world... our changing shoreline.Eastern Daily Press · 31 Oct, 06:00

In this story: Stephen Hyatt-Cross · Pakefield · Lowestoft · Norwich School of Art and Design

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