Newcastle Ocean Baths: Fine Art Photographs (19 images)

Fine Art Photography of Newcastle Ocean Baths.
Australia's Ocean Baths were originally built to safely wet and cool the citizens on hot summer days. Today, along with the ebbing edges of the Pacific Ocean, they hold memories and remnants of past living and lives.

Coastal pools like this one at Newcastle Beach are spread along the East Coast of Australia. They are often nostalgic places - especially in times of special light. Early mornings; warm, soft dusks; bright, hot...
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Fine Art Photography of Newcastle Ocean Baths.
Australia's Ocean Baths were originally built to safely wet and cool the citizens on hot summer days. Today, along with the ebbing edges of the Pacific Ocean, they hold memories and remnants of past living and lives.

Coastal pools like this one at Newcastle Beach are spread along the East Coast of Australia. They are often nostalgic places - especially in times of special light. Early mornings; warm, soft dusks; bright, hot afternoons and cold, weather-beaten nights.

The worn, whitewashed steps have seen the same feet skip and later shuffle, growing from tiny & soft to gnarled and wide. Parents, holding small, excited hands, have nurtured the tentative steps of offspring beginning their own memories. These places are community - gatherings of clans and friends.

For such a visual feast 'the baths' are just as sensory with closed eyes. Squeals of fun, the slap of bare feet on wet concrete, the crashing of waves and the squarks of seagulls picture the story of the Australian coast indelibly on the mind.

The Newcastle Ocean Baths are very familiar to my camera. While I don't live nearby any more, when I do visit, it's enough for me to sit with eyes closed and let the sounds and scents refresh those slideshows in my mind.

I've made images for long enough to know many of the rules of my craft. It's that knowledge that helps me break a few of them from time to time. With these pictures I used an unusual lens arrangement and techniques to selectively blur and emphasise. I hoped to find pictures that suited memories of special places. Perhaps a little embellished, with some 'facts' less defined but always a steady centre of truth - even as time separates now from then.
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