Edinburgh Street photography_08 Portobello

Note: I have only been leaving the house to get food, cycle or walk for exercise. I do this alone and keep social distance. These photos were taken before the lockdown.

'Porty' as it is commonly called over here is a suburb town just outside Edinburgh. It looks onto the sea and has quite an expansive promenade. It reminds me of home. I grew up beside the sea. It's presence whispered that there was a wider world outside the town of Bray. Portobello is smaller, quieter, a little bleaker but it is beautiful. It makes you forget you live in a city. I decided on colour this time as I believe this is more in tune with the character of the place. These are more like holiday snaps than anything else. But with little to no people.

Portobello.2020

There is a Harold pinter play called 'The Birthday Party'. It is set in a seaside resort somewhere in England. The place is rather deserted, left behind. On a quiet day Portobello reminds me of this setting also. Although there is a considerable community and it can get busy when the weather is good, each time I go there I can sense a weird spaciousness, a kind of subtle loneliness that floats in off the water. Or maybe that's just me. The main character in the play, Stanley, is a recluse in his thirties. He has ended up here. A burn out, whiling away his time in a grubby BnB. His once greatness as a piano player is hinted at. He is watched and doted over by Meg, a married woman twice his age. Stanleys past comes knocking. The suffocating peacefulness of the BnB is broken. It's probably my favourite Pinter play. The screen adaptation with Robert Shaw as Stanley is brilliant. Watch it.

Visually Portobello is quite minimal. Ships can be spotted in the mist far off on the horizon. The beach is flat. The waves move in a hushed, soporific way in the springtime.

Portobello.2020.

I found it hard to photograph. My choice was mainly to try and keep the pictures simple and uncluttered as a way of describing this spaciousness. What I did find helpful was having a clear, straight horizon as a backdrop. The sand, sea and sky can divide the image up in a pleasing way. I tried to imagine being there without any people present. Just myself and a camera.

Portobello.2020

Of course some bodies did sneak into the frame from time to time so I decided to just takes pictures of what I believed represented the place to me. Why are we as people drawn to the sea? What does it do to our sense of being? When I was younger, in times of confusion or heartbreak, I would nearly always find myself on the beach. It wasn't really a conscious decision to seek out comfort. I would just end up there, looking out at the waves and it helped somehow. In Celtic spirituality water was viewed as sacred. People believed that bodies of water acted like portals and could deliver us esoteric knowledge from the other realms. About a year ago I went on a retreat to the Buddhist monastery Samye Ling, west of Edinburgh. I was there over the Christmas period. While walking the surrounding landscape I found myself being drawn towards a certain spot by a river. Each time I would sit beside the water, meditate and then ask the river questions. Later in the evenings I might be sitting reading in my room and the answers would slowly start to unravel in my mind. I'm not saying that the river literally spoke to me but rather it acted like a mirror of sorts, a reflector back towards myself. The answers were inside me. I just had to create enough peace to hear them.

Portobello.2020

Portobello.2020

Porty has its typical seaside elements. The amusements, the food vans, the ice creams. There is a certain reassuring feeling to the presence of these things. They serve a purpose. They fit into the landscape. For me they are nostalgic and nostalgia is often a powerful elixir. Taking a trip out to portobello is like daydreaming for me.

The seaside is like an old friend or a kind onlooker. I swam in the salt water. I kissed girls below the promenade. I got drunk on the beach. I first felt the awakening of love beside the sea. It has always been there. It is a mysterious behemoth that surrounds and connects. The promenade at 'Porty' offers people a stretch of openness where they can walk and breathe and spend time together without distraction. Lets hope it will be returned to this use soon. We need these spaces. They remind us how simple pleasures can be some of the most rewarding.

Portobello.2020.

Perhaps one of these days I'll move out there. It tends to be more expensive than where i'm at now but I'm planning on working on that over the coming year. Though the coming year now seems to be shadowed by uncertainty. Buddhist teachings tell you to embrace uncertainty as it is what life is truly made of. My first thought is 'that's all fine and well but we don't all have the privilege of sitting in a cave somewhere and...etc, etc.'

But life is uncertain, even when we think we have it under our control. Something unexpected can arise and pull the proverbial rug. This period must hold some significance for us and surely we must learn from it. One thing is that we are all in this. Unless you buy into the conspiracy theories, no-one is exempt from this invisible plague. We are all vulnerable and for a period, our perceived status in society will be eroded and weakened. I hope that we come out the other side changed somewhat, at least internally. Even small changes in the spirit can and usually will permeate our surrounding realities. Lets sit it out, in our own personal caves, and see.