Mute Photoblog

2004-08-02: My first ever PhotoFriday entry - 'sunset' :)

I took this photo of the always delapidated West Pier about four years ago before I left Brighton for Australia and have to admit to editing out part of the walkway on the right of the image in photoshop. I wanted the pier to stand as I always liked to see it: I would walk down to the water and shut out the city behind me, imagining that the pier was standing alone in the middle of the ocean, a strange and majestic sight for passing ships... Brighton's the kind of town that does that to you!

There is a grain on the image because the film was out of date and I waited several months before processing, but I like the way it turned out. It's not the greatest scan but you can just make out the flock of starlings that stopped off there every year, wheeling and turning in the sky together like a giant protoplasmic organism.

I returned to Brighton last year and during the months I was there the pier was ravaged by fires and storms and is now nothing more than a wooden skeleton which I think has scuppered all plans of restoration.

This was the last photo I took of it before leaving