Ins and Outs, Guardian Weekend, 25.02.12

In this article Robert Macfarlane marvels at Michael Marten's photographs of British beaches at high and low tide. This project was made possible by the fact that in this country we have extremely wide tidal ranges: up to 15 metres in the Bristol Channel rather than centimetres in the Mediterranean. Marten made himself an expert on tide tables and the timings of the biggest spring tides and he travelled all over the country capturing the difference between high and low tides and the litteral zone in between.

The results are remarkable. By means of his side-by-side time-lapse technique, Marten makes visible to us landscape contrasts that would otherwise go unperceived. The chromatic range of his work is distinctive: this is a realm of muted russets and browns, silvers and blues, greys and soft greens. Against these natural hues, the colours of human presence stand cheerily bright: candy striped windbreaks and swimming costumes, plastic buckets and spade'. This fits in absolutely perfect with the subject of Project 10.