I suppose it may be a strange thing to be drawn to when you’re at the ocean, but the sewer grates at Hampton Beach caught my eye.
Hampton Beach is the first beach I’ve ever been to where if you’re walking up the boardwalk (which is really more of a sidewalk, its made of cement) and you look to your right you see the horizon. A long stretch of ocean and sky. So easy on the eyes, it’s like a meditation just to look.
But when you look to your left, it’s a chaos of cars and shops filled with fluorescent colored plastic stuff, cheap clothes and fried food. It has the exact opposite effect on me of looking at the ocean.
And with all of that, it was the sewer grates that I chose to take pictures of.
Maybe they somehow fall between the two.
There’s something about the yellow arrows and the simplicity of the grid of the grate…
… the lines the cracks in the blacktop make.
The texture, the shapes the color and even the cigarette butts that settle in the cracks seem beautiful to me.
May I suggest you give Ogunquit or York beach a try next time? They’re just a s lovely with less of the commercialism and party-scene atmosphere.
We’re thinking of Rye Beach next, but seem to be working our way north.