Sunless days at the beach in vintage photographs

by Barista Uno | Nov 2, 2021 | Nature and the Environment, Photography

Who would go to the beach when the weather is cold, damp and dreary? People go there to bask in the glory of the sun. Yet, there is something special — even beautiful — about a beach on a sunless day. Far from the motley crowd of sunbathers and alone near the mist-covered sea, one may come to realise the complex and perplexing nature, not only of the sea, but of life itself.

Fishing boats on the beach at Scheveningen, 1904
Photo attributed to James Higson
Courtesy of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

[Fleckenstein Family at the Beach], 1907–1943
Photo by Louis Fleckenstein (American, 1866–1943)
Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Waves at the beach, Sylt, Germany, 1882
Photo by Carl Curman (Swedish, (1833–1913)
Courtesy of the Swedish National Heritage Board

Frances Breese, 1910
Bain News Service, publisher
Courtesy of George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress, USA

Russian-Israeli poet Elisheva Bichovsky, with her infant daughter, on the beaches of Tel Aviv, Winter 1926
Photo by Shimon Korbman (Israeli,1887–1978)
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Childhood on the beach revisited in old photographs

[Boy with horses on beach], about 1880–1890
Photo by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (British, 1853–1941)
Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

[Beach view with pier, boats, and men at Brighton, England], 1865–1870
Photo by William H. Mason (British, active Brighton, England 1860s)
Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles