Walcott Waves

This series grew out of my passion for the Norfolk coast, and a deep affinity with water in all its forms. I've always found inspiration in the way that photography freezes instantly the kind of detailed shapes and forms found in moving water and allows us the luxury to gaze at it in our own time, so for this series I wanted to show the raw power of wave energy and the North Sea in particular.

Here in Norfolk, small coastal communities like Walcott and Happisburgh have become some of the most visible examples of rising sea levels in Europe. Every winter, high tidal surges destroy huge chunks of cliff and cause flooding inland. The landscape surrounding these communities is slowly but surely being reclaimed by the sea.

I spend many hours at these places at high tide to capture the special colour and character of the North Sea and the explosive collisions of waves as they roll into the sea wall and out to sea again, smashing into other incoming waves as they do so. These high energy collisions reveal white, foamy wave crests and the brown sea turns golden brown in the low winter sun.

The relentless effect of these storms and tidal surges on abandoned sea defence structures are a reminder of the inevitable force of the water carving out new landscapes with every high tide. At these locations you're simply forced to admire the terrifying power of the North Sea - not the horizon, not the sky, not the birdlife - just the force of water in motion.