The Observer
25.08.19 3In 1978 Markéta Luskačová , who
had not long arrived in Britain from
Prague, was invited to photograph
the people of the north-east of
England, as part of a project that
also involved Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Luskačová , who had been engaged
in taking pictures of the street
markets in London’s East End ,
where she now lived, knew exactly
where she wanted to go – to the
beach at Whitley Bay.
There were a couple of reasons
for this. She had visited the area
once before, and been drawn both
by the greyness of the light and
the warmth of the people she had
encountered. This latter fact was
important as she knew she would
have to travel with her one-year-
old son, Matthew, to take her
photographs, and she had a sense
that families on the beach, making
the best of it in all weathers, mightbe happy to look after him while
she went about her work with her
camera.
Her hopes were well founded. In
a moving, evocative book of those
pictures published next month
(with an accompanying exhibition
in Bristol) Luskačová notes how
her pram wheels got stuck in
the sand every morning, but the
nearest family was always more
than happy to mind her son asshe looked for subjects. There is a
profoundly human quality to what
she saw – old men and women in
their Sunday hats and coats; dogs
and children excited by the freedom;
fastidious windbreaks and serious
beach cricket and reviving pots of
tea – which is common to the grain
of all Luskačová ’s work.
In this picture, sky and sea and
sand bleed into that otherworldly
middle distance, from which poniesand children and cyclists emerge.
Like Luskačová ’s photograph, the
couple in the foreground seem both
rooted in their moment and slightly
out of time. Tim AdamsBy the Sea: Photographs from the
North East, 1976–1980 by Markéta
Luskačová is out next month (RRB
Photobooks, £45). An exhibition of the
photographs is on at the Martin Parr
Foundation, Bristol, until 5 OctoberWhitley Bay
1978, by Markéta
Luskačová.
Courtesy of
the artist and
RRB Photobooks