Don’t you hate it when you think you have this brilliant idea and then you realize that someone has been doing it for much longer than you had the thought and probably much better than you could have done it. Yeah, me too. It happens alot.
When I was living in Taiwan you would come across these beautiful empty beaches without a soul in sight. They didn’t get your usual beachcombers walking up and down picking up shells and interesting rocks as in some of the more frequented locales.
By the way, Taiwan is the only place I’ve ever been to where they have shops devoted to selling rocks that you would find on the many cobble lined beaches of the East Coast. Yeah, Rock Shops… but thats a whole nother story.
In addition to the beautifully shaped rocks you would also find the most interesting garbage.
I started photographing some of these pieces and wanted to eventually create a book showcasing some of this really weird and really cool stuff. From Doll heads, to weird plastic drums, to baby bottles, and all kinds of things you wouldn’t expect to see washed up on a beach. I still have those photos in boxes in the closet and will have to dig them out someday. Not incredibly spectacular, but interesting none the less.
Well, Andy Hughes, an artist from the seaside town of Cornwall in the U.K. has done a brilliant job of stealing my idea. Well not exactly, he has actually been capturing some of the beauty in this trash that floats ashore for probably much longer than I have had the idea and he has numerous awards and accolades to prove it. The images he captures are spectacular and his efforts and motivation stem from wanting to create awareness for what we dispose of and how and where it all will eventually end up.
By turning this careless disposal into fine Art, he has hopefully awakened many and shed some light on what we as Surfers know all too well. Everything you throw away could end up in the Ocean.
Take care of our planet, be mindful of what you consume and how you consume it, and keep our planet blue and green and all the other colors that Andy has done such a fine job of representing in his work. He has a book too! Dominant Wave Theory. That Bastard! 🙂
PS…All images are courtesy of AndyHughes.net.
Bluebird Surf 