Above Tolcarne Beach, 1985
Tolcarne Beach, 1985
Beach huts, Tolcarne Beach, 1985
Signs, Tolcarne Beach, 1985
Shadows, Lusty Glaze Beach, 1985
Looking out to sea, the Tram Tracks, 1985
The Island, 1985
Lifeguards chair, Towan Beach, 1985
Towan Beach, 1985
Newquay Harbour, 1985
Conger Eel, Newquay Harbour, 1985
Looking towards Towan and Great Western Beaches, 1987
Newquay Harbour, 1987
Newquay Harbour, 1987
Above Lusty Glaze Beach, 1987
Newquay Harbour, 1987
Putting a pram onto a boat, Newquay Harbour, 1987
Newquay Harbour, 1987
Newquay Harbour, 1987
Tolcarne Beach, 1988
Tolcarne Beach, 1988
Tolcarne Beach, 1988
Tolcarne Beach, 1988
Tolcarne Beach, 1988
Tolcarne Beach, 1988
Newquay Harbour Beach, 1989-91
Newquay Harbour Beach, 1989-91
Above Lusty Glaze Beach, 1989-91
Reading the newspaper, Tolcarne Beach, 1989-91
Sign and shadow, South Quay Hill, 1989-91
Bank Street, 1989-91
Above Tolcarne Beach, 1989-91
Towan Beach, 2009
'Hello Lorraine Davies', Towan Beach, 2009
Postcards, 2009
Charity shop window display, 2009
'Sexy Undies', 2009
Low tide, Towan Beach, 2011
Towan Beach, 2011
Newquay Harbour wall, 2011
Surf lesson, Great Western Beach, 2011
Surfers, Great Western Beach, 2011
Great Western Beach, 2011
'Visitors welcome', Newquay Bowling Club, 2011
Tourists going on a boat trip, 2011
Tolcarne Beach, 2011
Looking at t-shirts, 2011
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Black & White 1985-1991
Colour 2010-2014
NEWQUAY
Since 1985 I have been documenting the beach landscapes and tourists of Newquay, Cornwall. The photographs began when I was staying with friends during the Whitsun holidays. During the day, while they were working, I wandered around the clifftops and beaches with an old twin lens reflex camera I had bought for £40. I found myself revisting familiar spots remembered from early childhood holidays. We would travel overnight from Derby to Newquay by train and then in later years by car, driving on A roads so my Father could avoid motorways, arriving in the early morning and eager to be on the beach.
Newquay was also where my Father's family had first lived in England; arriving as Polish refugees after the Second World War. A Polish community had been established at St Mawgan Airforce Base nearby. My Father worked as a waiter in several local hotels before moving to Derby where he met my Mother.
Freak wave on Tolcarne Beach 1968 - photograph by Czeslaw Nadolski
Me aged three on Tolcarne Beach - photographed by my Father Czeslaw Nadolski
In a sense, when I began, I was photographing not only the present but also the past as my memories were guiding where and what I photographed. Our earliest holidays had been recorded by my Father on slide film. These colour-rich slides would then be projected, larger than life, in our darkened living room in the suburbs of Derby during the winter months. Viewed again and again over many years, these pictures became my memories.
From the very beginning I was determined to try and avoid ridiculing tourists in my photographs, that would have been too easy. After all, I was a tourist and am I really any different now? For me the beach has begun to resemble a stage set and I am just an observer of the myriad of stories played out upon it. I watch. I am a tourist.
ANDREW NADOLSKI
304 Topsham Road
Exeter
Devon
EX2 6HG
United Kingdom
andrew@nadolski.com
+44 (0)1392 496200
+44 (0)7860 705385