I grew up in a town on the South East Coast of England, often referred to as ‘God’s Waiting Room’, many young people call it ‘The Bourne’ or ‘Ebo’, I call it Eastbourne. For a long time I tried to get out of it, as far away as possible… but due to serious illness I was forced to come back here for treatment ten years ago. I have had a complicated relationship with this town at times, but since my illness I view it in a different way and I have come to love it. This project is about many aspects of the town, first and foremost what it means to me, but also its interesting and wonderful people.
The project started one morning on 22nd November 2019, when I smelt smoke in my studio apartment near the seafront, I looked out of the window and I saw that ash was falling out of the sky and my road had been cordoned off by police, my building had to be evacuated. I took only my Pentax 6x7 with me. I had been contemplating photographing the Claremont Hotel for some time and only a few weeks prior to this had seen the joyous scene of elderly ladies bopping their heads up and down on the dance floor during the regular evening’s entertainment. To find out that it was burning down was a bit of a shock. Nobody was hurt in the fire but everybody in the town was affected by it and it made the national and international news. This disastrous event spurred me to start making a record of the town.