One of the great things about collaborations is that you get to meet a load of people for whom you’d never normally cross the street to say ‘Hello’.

This month The Crossing Lines Group acted as hosts for a collection of Brighton photographers who had taken it upon themselves to create an On-the-sands photographic exhibition.

Most of us might remember Brighton beach as nothing but stones. Not so.

We also might remember it for a smug bi-annual photographic event.

The bunch who turned up for the Crossing Lines evening were seriously absent of smugness. They also attracted a bundle of street-crossers who engaged with ‘Hello’ & some on-the-rocky-sands exhibitionism.

Gill Golding (new LIP chairperson) and Allan Grainger (itinerant psycho-geographer) had set up Urban Photographers Brighton (a subversive photography guerrilla unit) but they weren’t the driving force for this On-the-beach event. This was the work of our Brighton guests: Colin Miller, Colleen Slater, Audrey Marshall, Steve Boyle, David Wilsdon  and Leon Bellis and their theme was ‘A year in the life of Brighton seafront’.

Our discussions during the evening centered upon a matter that the Brighton gang share with members of The Elephant’s Journey: placing work in the space that had acted as the original source of, & inspiration for, the work. We also considered the logistics of this type of exhibition & its location beside the promenade. We acknowledged the respect that was paid to the open exhibition during its ‘residence’ & the spontaneous ad hoc events that it conjured up.

Crossing Lines continues to encourage this cross-fertilisation of ideas. Open all hours.

John Levett