Posts tagged Use your skills for peace

Last summer I photographed on the beautiful north Kent beaches of Tankerton and Whitstable.

© Alicia Joynes
© Wendy Carrig
© Wendy Carrig
© Alicia Joynes

© Alicia Joynes
© Wendy Carrig
© Alicia Joynes

Last week I learnt that Southern Water regularly releases untreated sewage onto these beautiful beaches as reported in the documentary Our Troubled Rivers. Self-regulated dumping by water companies, together with storm runoff from livestock farms, means beaches and designated bathing waters are often closed, and disgracefully all our rivers are now polluted.

To right this desperate situation and put a stop to profiteering and abuse of our vital natural resource, the activist group SOSWhitstable are urgently petitioning the government to bring the care of our water back into public ownership.

Similarly Surfers Against Sewage ask us to sign their Dirty Money petition. Both groups hope that with re-reinvestment and upgrades the water industry will have the resources to nurse our ailing natural environment back to good health.

Horrible fact that in 2021 alone, water companies released effluence into English and Welsh waterways amounting to 25 years of untreated sewage.

Meanwhile my thanks to the kind and generous people of Tankerton and Whitstable, The Marine Hotel, and this super team :

Julie, me, Frances, Eveline & Jo
© Alicia Joynes

talent – Eveline Besters at Models1 (drove all the way from her home in Amsterdam to avoid flight cancellations), fashion editor – Jo Atkinson at Hearst assisted by Corin Ripley, hair & makeup artist – Frances Prescott at S.Management, clothes transport – Michelle Bohan, producer – Fiona Andrews at Hearst, digital operator – Julie Stewart, lighting assistant and all the wonderful behind-the-scenes photography – Alicia Joynes. Fashion photography by me Wendy Carrig

This picture is part of a fashion editorial I shot on Wimbledon Common last spring. I grew up near the Common and still walk my dog there most mornings. Throughout the summer I watched the drought change lush greenery into a parched dry landscape and the pond to a small watering hole, as 2022 turned into the hottest year on record.

Rushmere Pond, Wimbledon Common photo credit © Amer Ghazzal

This year is predicted to be even hotter and Extinction Rebellion are joining with other organisations, movements and individuals in The Big One A super-sized peaceful protest (no glue or padlocks) demanding our government act now in tackling the climate emergency.

Meanwhile here is the rest of the fashion story. Ironically we used Photoshop to change the lush greenery to look more like the last days of summer. I don’t know if there are any fish in Rushmere pond. Ours was from Waitrose.

talent – Chloe Webb, fashion director – Amanda Marcantonio assisted by Corin Ripley, hair & makeup artist – Sally Kvalheim, digital operator – Julie Stewart, photo assistant – Sujata Setia, producer – Karina Dial at Hearst, with thanks to Angela Evans-Hill from the Wimbledon Ranger’s office.