WHO?
My name is Dan Baker and I live at the seaside – between two small towns that have collided called Grimsby and Cleethorpes, located on the North East coast of the UK. I’ve always been drawn towards the creative process and I stumbled into photography when I was at college. I fell in love with the medium, carrying it on to degree level and not putting down a camera since.
WHAT?
The seaside! The coast holds something special to us here in the UK and I’m absolutely hooked. It offers so much diversity and is a social mixing pot of the masses. It has it all for my eye to enjoy, from the uninterrupted coastal light to the people it attracts and quite often the faded facades of the salt-licked amusement arcades. Bright colours or subtle moments become stunning backdrops for people to interact with. It’s like a constant evolving abstract and I love it all.
WHEN?
I photograph all year round in almost all weather, something that I have adapted to, given how fast the weather here on the UK coastline can change. However, I do have a very particular set of parameters that I love to shoot in – late UK summer, on a warm cloudless evening with a touch of haze from the sea. Just after sunset and with king tide (the highest the water will get). I have about half an hour to work before the perfect soft light is lost but in that time true magic seems to happen.
WHERE?
The UK coast, in particular the small town of Cleethorpes and I normally work about a 200m stretch of the promenade between the pier and a little fairground located on the beach. Besides Cleethorpes, I do sometimes travel to other coastal towns and dip my toes in the water there, photographing whatever unique secrets they have for me to find.
WHY?
I have a compulsion to create. I don’t feel satisfied unless I’ve made something new and exciting each day. I’m also searching for something, a feeling and emotional state that I can’t describe with words. Hence the constant itch for ways to convey what written language can’t deliver for me.
