The Great British Seaside: beach photography from the 1960s to the present day

From Blackpool to Brighton, we Brits are spoilt for choice when it comes to a stroll by the sea, and it's a tradition we've been enjoying for years.

In a new major exhibition, some of the world's most celebrated photographers highlight the nation’s love affair with the seaside. Featuring over 100 works by Martin Parr, Tony Ray-Jones, David Hurn and Simon Roberts – the show explores our changing relationship with our shores over the last six decades.

Documenting a "quintessentially British experience", the traditions, customs and eccentricities associated with destinations including Essex, Kent and Dorset, are captured through archive collections, negative contact sheets and video footage.

As part of the exhibition, 20 new works by Martin Parr, arguably Britain’s favourite photographer, which were commissioned by the NMM for The Great British Seaside, focus on the thriving and diverse resorts of London’s ‘local beaches’. The commission includes photographs from Southend-on-Sea, Shoeburyness, Leigh-on-Sea, Frinton-on-Sea, Clacton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze.

Visitors will be taken on a nostalgic journey featuring the iconic beach huts, deck chairs, fish ‘n’ chips and donkey rides synonymous with a trip to the seaside. Whilst the fashions and styles of each era give tell-tale clues of the decade, the activities and traditions are amusingly consistent, reappearing throughout the six decades covered in the exhibition, alongside the familiar sight of Brits determined to enjoy their day out, whatever the weather.

From the 1960s, when documentary photography in Britain gained greater attention, through to the modern day, each photographer brings their own distinctive approach to capturing both the changing and unchanging nature of the British seaside experience. Through recurring themes of place, tradition and class, the exhibition holds up a critical, yet affectionate and often humorous, mirror to a great British tradition.

See the exhibition from 23 March – 30 September 2018. Plan your visit at www.rmg.co.uk.