Dawn Days

The blue hour

By James Robertson

July 5^th, 2021

Walking along Portobello beach during the cold January mornings towards the glowing sky lazily heralding dawn it was at first unusual to see a wetsuited figure sitting in the shallows or treading water surrounded by various coloured lights. As the days passed Mike became a reassuring presence, echoing the repetition all our lives had developed during lockdown, yet he was openly pitting his creativity against the elements.

“I found myself walking around in the water up to my waist uninspired with flat light and three days of onshore creating a somewhat uninviting brown soup to photograph around me. When I turned back to land, I started to see the reflections of the street lights that were still on. So I made my own Artificial sun.

There seems to be something more challenging about shooting at dawn this year . The Sun rises over the land unlike last May when it rose over the sea. As always when I take my time and forget about trying to create anything, things pop-up. Being flexible and opening your eyes to different possibilities and potential is something worth remembering and taking into everything that I do.”

Mike Guest

Mike Guest is a photographer and filmmaker brought home, and to a standstill, by the pandemic. Unable to travel and with an abundance of time he experienced the darkest weeks of his life. “Dawn Days” became both a catalyst for, and a documentation of, his working through this. Initially conceived of by Nick Pumphrey it has quickly grown to become a movement encouraging everyone to witness dawn, the tides, the sun rising and allowing themselves to be immersed in it. Mike spent every dawn during January in the sea with his camera and Nick documented 111 dawns in Cornwall from the water between 1 January and 21 April 2021.