Seashore Chapel
This photographic reportage comes from a desolate day on the Yellow Sea in 2018. The sea lines China’s northeastern coast and is subject to extreme weather shifts. On this particular day, however, a ferocious sandstorm blew in from Inner Mongolia and altered everything in its path. Light became soft, filtered, and gray, winds swirled the rare passer-by into a trance, and the ocean’s waves crashed powerfully on the shore. It was a surreal experience to be there, and an even stranger one to be photographing.
The Seashore Chapel is open to faiths in all forms, as stated upon entering the community hall. It stands out on the beach like a boat swept ashore with its sharply pitched gable. Constructed of poured concrete and whitewashed walls, the cutouts inside allow for the light to fill the space naturally, and the benches face not a pulpit but a wall of glass — the only thing between you and the ocean.
