Seven Sisters, Seven Swans

The distance between the foot of the first Sister and the summit of Beachy Head, corresponds to the distance between the neck of the leftmost swan and the tail-feathers of the rightmost one.

If both photographs were viewed as negatives, the Seven Sisters would be black sisters, and the swans black swans, and the vertical black lines in the sky - indicating the Sisters - would be white. But the white lines in the water, made by the reflections of the swans’ necks, would still be black.

Swans are known to be ‘bad flyers’. The Seven Sisters are a well known jumping off spot for bad flyers.

Both subjects are photographic ‘favourites’, clichés: photographing swans, like the photography of graveyards, should be encouraged.