Intangible and mysterious, familiar yet obscure, the shipping forecast is broadcast four times daily on BBC Radio 4. For those at, or about to put to sea, the forecast may mean the difference between life and death.
But for millions of landlubbing radio listeners it is more than this; the enigmatic language of the forecast has entered the public conciousness, creating a landscape of the imagination and confirming romantic notions of Britain's island status. Captioned by the 0600hrs forecast on the day they were taken, these photographs challenge our assumptions of these far-flung places.
A touring exhibition of my photographs from all 31 sea areas was accompanied by a book, 'The Shipping Forecast', which was published by Zelda Cheatle Press in 1996. It sold quickly, and was subsequently reprinted twice more in 1997, eventually selling 10,000 copies.
In 2023, a much-expanded version of the same name was published by GOST. It included 163 pictures, over 100 more than the original book. Here is the entire sequence.
