Sandscript: Charles March Returns to Hamiltons Gallery with a New Vision of the Shoreline

Hamiltons Gallery in London will present Sandscript, a new exhibition by British photographer Charles March, from 4 November 2025 to 16 January 2026. The show introduces a series of photographs rooted in close observation of the shoreline, where shifting textures and temporary traces on sand become the basis for refined, quiet abstraction.

Charles March. Image Credit: Julian Broad.

March focuses on small encounters with the natural world. He captures shadows, grasses and stray fragments that create brief marks before the tide or wind removes them. These details take on the character of calligraphic signs, suggesting the spontaneity of ink on paper. Rather than broad vistas, the works drift toward the intimacy of studies or sketches.

Movement has long shaped March’s practice. Previous abstract works relied on the motion of the camera. In Sandscript, the camera is steady. The subject shifts instead. Grasses sway. Sand resettles. Light changes. Small pieces of debris vanish almost as soon as they appear. Each photograph becomes a record of a passing moment.

Charles March, Sandscript, Series 1, 04, IV, 2025

March explains that he aims to preserve feelings that would otherwise dissolve. Curator Edith Devaney sees this new focus as an invitation to engage more deeply with the emotional atmosphere of the images and with the fragile nature of the scenes he chooses.

With a career that spans fifty years, March has moved between documentary photography, film work and still-life. His experience ranges from assisting Stanley Kubrick on Barry Lyndon to producing widely published editorial stories and major advertising campaigns. Since returning to West Sussex in the 1990s, he has continued to refine a personal photographic approach. His exhibitions have appeared in London, New York, Los Angeles, Rome and St Petersburg.

Proceeds from Sandscript will support The King’s Trust International’s tenth anniversary campaign, Generation Potential.

As March reflects on this new body of work, his thoughts naturally extend toward the creative impulses that guide him. This is where our conversation begins, in an interview that explores the ideas behind Sandscript and the evolving direction of his practice.

Sandscript feels deeply attuned to the natural rhythms of the shore. What first drew you to the idea of capturing such transient marks in the sand, and how did this series begin to take shape?

I spent hours and hours on the edge of the seashore and in the grasses amongst the sand dunes. It’s all so dense there’s really nothing obvious to see. It’s all moving around a lot in the wind and being washed away too by the sea, but if you look for long enough, you suddenly start finding things which take on a very beautiful and different appearance, especially when taken out of context.

Within the title Sandscript, there is a suggestion of both language and impermanence. What does that dual meaning hold for you personally?

Both sand and languages are often ancient, but sand just gets blown away and often used too to describe the passage of time. Languages very much have a place in history and in these pictures it’s rather like finding a new language – a language we recognise, but one we can’t read - one that is simply washed up by the sea and is often washed away again before it can be read and interpreted.

Many of your projects seem to trace a dialogue between nature and perception. How do you see Sandscript extending or refining that conversation?

 The pictures are all abstract – you wouldn’t really know what they were, but you know that they are natural, that they are of nature. Abstract photography is itself a paradox.

Charles March, Sandscript, Series 2, 05, V, 2025

Your images often evoke the spontaneity of drawing or calligraphy. How conscious are you of that parallel when you are working, and do you see these photographs as a kind of visual handwriting?

I like the idea of them being a visual handwriting which happens to be written through the lens of a camera. I hope they stretch people’s understanding of photography, of what it can do, and that it isn’t necessarily about representing what’s in front of the camera.

There is a comparison to be made with your images in Sandscript and Chinese ink drawings which feels particularly resonant. Were you inspired by specific artists or traditions, or did that connection emerge naturally from the process?

I find the tradition very inspiring but the connection, in this instance, emerged through the process, the process of moving the camera around during the exposure but has continued to develop now the camera is still. In this latest work it is particularly relevant to Series 3, the large triptych.

Charles March, Sandscript, Series 3, 01, I, 2025

Having begun as a commercial and still-life photographer, what has abstraction allowed you to explore that other forms of photography perhaps could not?

It has allowed me to explore things in a much more flexible way, allowing me to see things which in a way don’t exist at first and not to have to represent anything as it actually is. In fact, I’m actively trying not to represent it accurately but find a different way of seeing and recording it.

You have spoken of photography as a way of observing time. In this series, where the subject is constantly shifting, how do you decide the moment to press the shutter?

I’m simply trying to push the shutter before the subject disappears! The camera is not moving in these pictures, but the subject matter itself is being blown by the wind and swept away by the sea. So often just as I see it, it has disappeared and gone forever.

Your apprenticeship with Stanley Kubrick must have left a deep impression. Are there lessons from that time which still influence how you approach composition, patience or control in your work today? 

From a technical point of view, he was always very helpful indeed to me – obviously having been a great photographer himself very early on in his career. One important thing I learned was that you have to set your own standards and not live by anyone else’s. There was, of course, absolutely no compromise, which was amazing to be around at such a young age. There was only one way of doing things...

Looking back over five decades behind the camera, what continues to surprise or challenge you most about photography as a medium, and what do you see as the future of your photography?

Despite the digital world taking over, photography is still very magical to me. I love trying to find something from nothing - discover an exciting image out of nowhere. I don’t have to travel around the world to photograph things. It’s all right there in front of me. I just need to spend time being still and quiet and let it appear. Trust and time are important. For me, the future of photography is all about making it simpler and simpler, and taking it back to its most basic form. Hopefully the work becomes more reflective and less distracting - more about feelings, more of an impression. I often do things to disrupt the relationship between me and the camera, I’m keen to get between the lens and the subject.

You are donating proceeds from this exhibition to The King’s Trust International campaign, ‘Generation Potential’. What moved you to make that commitment, and how do you connect your art practice with the idea of giving back?

I’m very honoured to have been asked to chair the 10th anniversary of the Kings Trust International. I’ve committed to raise £10m this year to kick that off. I am hugely impressed by the ambition of his Majesty and felt that the least I could do would be to support that initiative by donating this exhibition. It seemed like the least I could do, as I am then supporting it in as personal way as I possibly can.

The campaign’s aim to help over a million young people into work across 21 countries is remarkable. What have you learned through chairing it about creativity, opportunity and the next generation?

All that has been achieved with the King’s Trust over the last 50 years and the King’s Trust International over the past 10 years is enormous. Both have had a huge impact on so many young people in this country and around the world and given them an opportunity they simply would never have otherwise had. The stories of both hope and success from the thousands of young people involved are unbelievably moving and an inspiration to all of us who have been so fortunate to have such opportunity and choice in our lives.