Abandoned Wrecks. Photography by John Whitfield

Estuaries, marshlands, creeks and salt flats – the edge of the known world.These are the places that have fascinated me since childhood.The unseen and unvisited places between the water and the land. As a photographer, I would explore these lonely, unloved places, attempting to capture the silent emptiness. Names such as Allhallows, Dead Man’s Island, Whalebone Marshes and Egypt Bay appealed to my imagination. Occasionally I would stumble across a beached hull, stripped of its planks with only its oak ribs remaining. I had found my subject.These decaying structures epitomised the wild, otherworldliness that attracted me to these areas. Object, sky and land had become one. I began to search them out.

These photographs were taken on an Art Panorama 170 camera, made in Japan.The camera uses 120 film and produces a 6 x 17cm negative but recently I have been using a Hi Res digital camera.