Polly Braden Captures Coastal Youth Life

AI Summary

Documentary photographer Polly Braden has collaborated with The Guardian on a year-long project called 'Against the Tide', capturing the lives of young people in coastal communities across England and Wales.

Capturing the Unseen Lives of Coastal Youth

Documentary photographer Polly Braden had her big idea while reading a landmark report about the poor health of people living on the English coast. The report blew her away, and she thought: 'This is about England. And it affects all of us.'

The Against the Tide Series

Braden collaborated with The Guardian's Seascape section to produce the 'Against the tide' series, a wide-reaching year-long journalism project reporting on the lives of young people in coastal communities across England and Wales. The project aims to shine a spotlight on 16- to 25-year-olds growing up on the neglected fringes of England and Wales.

Photographing Resilience and Beauty

Braden's work includes a photograph of Libby, a young woman from Whitehaven, Cumbria, depicted on a beach underneath a gloomy sky, holding a bag of oranges. A rainbow is faintly visible in the centre of the image, behind her right shoulder, giving her a slight halo as she looks down, away from the camera. 'There's beauty in it,' says Braden. 'And there is bleakness.'

The Exhibition

Braden's work will form a touring exhibition which opens at Arnolfini gallery in Bristol in June and moves to Colchester's Firstsite gallery in October.