A PHOTOGRAPHY student from Plymouth College of Art is currently in the midst of a community-based project whereby Bude Sea Pool is the underlying theme.

Mary-Anne Walker, age 25, lives in Bude and has been commuting to Plymouth daily whilst studying BA Photography and is currently in her second year.

In her latest study she is exploring the Bude Sea Pool users, documenting the people who visit the pool.

Mary said: “I became interested in the idea of a unique place of great historical context still attracting attention. The sea pool is such a rare and distinctive space, I felt compelled to explore the area photographically.

“For the last few days I have been photographing down at the sea pool, photographing the Bude community. It’s been an interesting and amazing experience for me — by far the largest scale project that I have taken on.

“There has been a great response to the project and we’ve had near to a hundred participants in three days.

“I am currently working in conjunction with the SOS Save our Sea Pool charity. We’re working together in promoting the sea pool, and its still active usage.

“I’m hoping the final exhibition is going to be held at the sea pool — I’m currently sorting out funding for that.

“The idea was that the open photography project was to be reflected in an open exhibition. Because the project is a community based project, which involved photographing the sea pool community it seemed only appropriate to have the exhibition in that community space.”

If all goes to plan, Mary is looking for the exhibition at the sea pool to be sometime in June and there’ll also be an exhibition in Plymouth as part of her degree which will take place at The Guildhall in Plymouth’s city centre in May.