BLAST BEACH

Previously a site used for dumping industrial waste, recent years have seen a push to clean up Blast Beach, near Seaham, County Durham. Yet, there still remains some of the other-worldliness that made it a prime location for David Fincher to film some of the open scenes of Alien 3. The blood red pools of water, dyed by the iron oxides that remain in the earth, turn fire-like as they fade to orange and then yellow at their shallow edges. The colour of the water, acts as a form of aposematism, reminding us that it is not safe. Up close images of the pools resemble crime scene photos. A metaphor, perhaps, for the environmental crimes inflicted upon the land. Even the name ‘Blast Beach’, referencing the blast furnaces which once stood there, sounds like a warning.