island
'ISLAND is my documentary project about the Isle of Thanet, at the eastern tip of Kent. Thanet, once an island cut off from the mainland by the River Wantsum, is a place of deep history, rich ecologies and shifting human tides. The photographs pay tribute to the beauty, challenge and unique character of this special place. The photographs for ISLAND were taken between 2019 and 2024.’
Copies of the ISLAND as an A4 landscape softback book with poems by Ramsgate Poet Sarah Tait are available via Mike Goldwater
About the Artist
Mike Goldwater is a photographer and filmmaker who graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in Physics. Passionate about photography since his early teens, he was a founder member of the Half Moon Photography Workshop and Camerawork magazine, and in 1981 co-founded the internationally renowned Network Photographers agency.
He has worked in more than 70 countries across Central and Latin America, Africa and Asia. His work has appeared on over fifty magazine covers worldwide, and he has won World Press Photo awards for his reporting on ethnic conflict in Burundi and floods in Bangladesh, as well as the Tom Hopkinson Award for Photojournalist of the Year.
After 25 years, Network Photographers closed following the digital revolution. Mike continues to work as a freelance photographer, producing commissioned work and long-term personal projects.
His books include Indus Journey (Chatto & Windus), Promised Lands (HarperCollins), Acqua (Federico Motta) and London Underground (Hoxton Mini Press). Recent self-published titles include ISLAND and Dunkirk Little Ships 2025, available from the Books page.
