Whale Day

2011, series of eight photographs

The photo series Whale Day documents the Pegwell stranding of 2011, when a 45 foot sperm whale became stranded and eventually died at Pegwell Bay, Thanet. Whale Day is an early example of Lizzy's interest in whales, beings who produce highly treasured ambergris in their bowel, and whose beachings have been linked to the consumption of marine plastics, creatures with whom she felt a particular affinity.

In the fourth photograph, most of the spectators have gone. The people standing around the dead whale are dressed in boiler suits in orange, red, neon yellow and white. The cherry picker bears down on the whale, which looks injured, its stomach open.

The white cliffs of Pegwell bay, topped with windswept trees, gleam behind the dead whale. The cherry picker is off to the left of the whale, turned to the side, its arm curved towards the shiny wet sand. Figures continue to stand around watching, some in hi-vis jackets.

In the first photograph, the sky is a murky grey/lilac. Wet sand glistens, the waves creating wavy channels. Figures in anoraks, one with a dog mill around. In the foreground, rocks, rockpools, seaweed. And then in the middle, the dead whale lies, with a cherry picker looming over it, looking a little like a miniature Eiffel tower.

Late afternoon on the mudflats at low tide. Scattered groups of onlookers, cast in silhouette by the sun, look towards something out of shot. A police officer's cap is discernible amongst one of the groups.

Whale Day

2011, series of eight photographs

The photo series Whale Day documents the Pegwell stranding of 2011, when a 45 foot sperm whale became stranded and eventually died at Pegwell Bay, Thanet. Whale Day is an early example of Lizzy's interest in whales, beings who produce highly treasured ambergris in their bowel, and whose beachings have been linked to the consumption of marine plastics, creatures with whom she felt a particular affinity.