Children of the Tides

Artist’s Statement: D J Wilson, LRPS

Capturing both the wildness of the natural landscape and the gentle, human rhythm of a summer’s day, this image taken at Grotto Beach Hermanus reflects the timeless innocence of beach exploration when at low tide, the shoreline becomes a world in miniature — a place of discovery, balance, and fleeting reflection.

Children wade through still pools, others climb the sea-worn rocks, their small movements echoing nature’s own rhythm. The muted tones of the landscape — sand, rock, and scrub — form a natural amphitheatre that both shelters and celebrates human play.

They walk where water’s memory fades,

tracing the lines the moon once drew.

Their laughter shivers the mirrored pools,

and sunlight breaks in ripples too.

The sea withdraws, but never leaves —

its breath still hums beneath their feet;

each grain of sand, a whispered tale

of journeys lost, of tides repeat.

Rocks become islands, kingdoms, dreams,

driftwood turns to ships and spires;

the wind writes music on their hair,

the day dissolves in salt and fire.

And when they go, the ocean waits —

to smooth the footprints, hush the cries;

childhood, like the tide itself,

departs — but always will arise.