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World Press

11 images Created 8 Aug 2013

(Possibly) the original 12 images which won for me 3rd prize in the World Press 1994, Daily Life Stories, by Richard Baker.

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  • An unrecognisable bather wearing a stripy costume bends over awkwardly to adjust his towel on the promenade pavement (sidewalk) at Minehead, Devon. The man's reddened posterior is pointed towards the viewer and his dachshund (sausage) pet dog stands still looking away to the right, towards unseen interest. A family of four stroll along the sandy beach during low tide. It is a hot afternoon but we only see a quiet scene at this busy resort.
    RB-0110.jpg
  • A daytrip of old age pensioners are seated on a bench in Great Yarmouth, a seaside resort in eastern England.
    seaside_pensioners05-27-05-1992.jpg
  • Two men enjoy their own versions of Blackpool North Pier, Lancashire, England. On the right, the first man is lying down on a bench with his trousers gathered around his ankles, his red bathing costume or underpants are baggy and he is looking across to something of interest while scratching his bald head. The second man on the right is not wearing a shirt and his stomach is spilling over his trousers. He has a bunch of keys attached to his belt and is pointing a video camera (camcorder) towards the shore. It is a comical scene and typical of Blackpool beach life. This northern sea side resort in the north-west of England is diverse in its transient holiday population whose behaviour can be routinely odd.
    RB-0111.jpg
  • An unseen person's hand reaches from the corner of the picture to offer a chip (French fry) to a hovering seagull at Minehead on the Somerset coast, South-west England. Another younger person has turned around to see what is happening but is also holding up his hand to other birds  none of the others are accepting the free meal. The summer afternoon sky is filled with bird life but clear of clouds and is a deep coastal blue which echoes the reaching shirt sleeve.
    RB-0108.jpg
  • A boy stands leaning on a hand rail near the top steps at Paignton sea front. At the bottom of the steps and floating face down in the clear, unpolluted  water, his arms outstretched, is a diver wearing a wet suit who appears lifeless. It is a scene of ambiguity and the viewer might be confused over whether the diver is in fact dead. It looks as if the diver has drowned but he is only enjoying the buoyancy of the salt sea water. It is a sunny afternoon and the shadows of the steps' rail which zigzags down the concrete steps.
    paignton_diver01-21-07-993.jpg
  • With his personal belongings and beach shingle surrounding him, a man sits on his seaside towel in soft sunlight in Dover eating a snack which is dribbling out of his mouth. The skin from many previous hours of exposure to solar radiation has left him raw and sunburned and therefore dried and dying skin is peeling in shreds on his back and shoulder. He looks like an eccentric local character who seems oblivious to the health risks that his continued sunbathing is inflicting on his bizarrely scorched body.
    RB-0106.jpg
  • Using a tabloid newspaper, a father seeks shelter from sunshine while sitting in a council deck chair. On the front page of the paper is a headline saying "Butchered' showing a picture of an unfortunate young 3 year-old boy murdered by a maniac axeman. Close-by is the man's own son who is digging a hole furiously in the sand. He looks uncannily like a slightly older version of the murdered boy. This coincidence is heightened because of the body-language of the digging lad, seemingly about to chop an unseen object with his red spade. Both man and boy are on holiday at the northern English seaside resort of Scarborough, North Yorkshire and they are otherwise having a great time on South Beach, near the Grand Hotel building, high up on the cliff.
    england_beach03-15-12-2007 .jpg
  • A mid-morning mist sweeps across the seafront's South Beach at Scarborough, the seaside town in North Yorkshire. Kids run about on the wet sand, some leaping and some just carrying buckets of salt water for sandcastles elsewhere. With the freedom and open-space, children who perhaps live in bleak industrial towns in northern England can enjoy the fresh-air on this north-eastern coast. Their reflections are also seen on the shiny sand and although it appears to be as grim as their home may be, it is in fact a warm day but the daily sea fogs that roll across this beach, a microclimate exists and is unique to this area.
    scarborough_beach08-21-1992_1.jpg
  • Pedalos and sea at low-tide in late evening on Bournemouth beach, seen from the town's pier.
    pedalo_beach01-20-10-1990.jpg
  • An elderly retired couple dance on the wide but darkly lit dance floor at Blackpool Tower Ballroom, England. They are the only dancers in the empty dance space, except for the Wurlitzer organist who is playing his accompanying music at the front of the stage, in a pool of bright light. We are looking down from a balcony high above and the husband and wife are pausing during their dance routine, stopping just long enough to register as sharp figures in the picture. The light is orange and red because of the tungsten light source. The Ballroom is the traditional home of the mighty Wurlitzer Organ and complemented by the 3 Deck Wersi - the world's most advanced organ. The Wersi is a state-of-the-art Louvre organ which is played by the resident organists in this magnificent setting. The present interior of the Blackpool Tower circus  was created by the famous theatre designer, Frank Matcham and completed in 1900.
    ballroom1-29-07-1993.jpg
  • A lady protects herself from a mid-day summer summer sun with a brightly coloured parasol brolley. Oblivious to the viewer, she balances her lunch snack on her lap with toes pointing inwards, exposed to the hot solar rays. Meanwhile, she holds on tight to her eager pet poodle dog who is straining on its leash, wanting to go for a walk along the largely unpopulated promenade in this Devon resort, otherwise known as the English Riviera. But splashes of white paint (from the painted beach huts) have been left on the pavement. It is a horrible place to sit in the sun and her partner has left her alone to sit on her sun lounger, leaving the second chair vacant.
    england_beach02-15-12-2007 .jpg
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