This piece in Gallery 1 has a very human, jumbled and sculptural quality. This is a modern, silver gelatin print, in wide shot close up. The camera hovers beside the subjects at a distance. They are a group of two adults: one male and one female and two children, (most likely a family) lying directly on Brighton beach. Their heads are closest to the bottom left of the frame. The man is furthest away from the camera, wearing a light-coloured, wide knit acrylic jumper, dark jeans and socks with sandals. Their clothes indicate that the beach scene may well be shot in the colder months. He is on his side in a semi foetal position angled towards the camera, but his left hand is up cradling his face with splayed fingers so we don’t see it. He is however wearing a gold wedding band on that hand.
In the crook of his curled body lies a child in similar winter clothes, with their back to him, arms curled inwards. A woman with blonde hair lies next to the pair. She is face down on the pebbles, her face resting on her arm, with the elbow of that arm poking out. On closer inspection all of the group are wearing knitwear which may account for the title of the piece. Another child, discernibly a boy, lies on top of her – sprawled on all fours. He rests his head on the small of her lower back, his arms flop on either side of her body and his legs are open to accommodate her longer ones. His one visible hands lightly grazes the pebbles they are all lying on.
The scene is one of companionable confusion; there is a conspicuous lack of beach towels (to guard against the harshness of the terrain) and other childish paraphernalia that is often involved in going to the beach as an event. This, in addition to the more sombre winter clothes that the whole group is wearing, led me to question Braybon’s intent with this image.
Should we assume this family group has been drowned in this out-of-season tangle? Or are they exotically washed ashore like mythical, many limbed creatures? Or are they simply all exhausted? I liked the general humanity of this image and it still appears comforting despite the use of black and white photography and what we might guess is the colder weather. The potential for story in this image however is vast, since it invites a variety of interpretations.