Snapshot by Charlotte Oliver (a poetry response to Photo Scarborough)

As part of Big Ideas by the Sea 2024, the amazing local poet Charlotte Oliver was Poet in Residence for the festival. She was commissioned to respond to a series of events at the festival and below is a response, to a talk we gave about photographers and photographic histories of Scarborough.

Oliver Francois Xavier Sarony (1820-1879), Portrait of a dog (Pomeranian?), Carte de Visite

Snapshot

by Charlotte Oliver

Big Ideas by the Sea

Once proud beside Paris, Nice and Cannes,

Scarborough’s bright photographic history grew dark;

countless portraits cast adrift on a sea of boot sales,

bottom drawers and house clearances.

Now sausage rolls are queued for, cars are parked

where once people chose to freeze a moment of

themselves in grand studios run by celebrated men –

or quietly afterwards by their widows.

From curlicued cartes de visite eyes stare,

through years and the shiny skin of paper,

not with our forced joy but with

monochrome solemnity.

Children are playless on a mocked-up beach.

A bushy-bearded man is stern, elbow rests

on a giant vase like a lad in a BMW on Marine Drive.

Even the dog is self-composed.

Though we look so different now, careful curation

of the ‘who’ we show remains. This archive

restores the lost picture of our town and helps us to

see ourselves within its frames.

To find out more about Charlotte’s work head to her website: https://charlotteoliver.com