Chairs at Margate 1935

László Moholy-Nagy captured this photograph, Chairs at Margate, employing stark angles and the interplay of light and shadow to reveal the rhythms of leisure. Note the rows upon rows of empty deck chairs, contrasted with the occupied ones filled with anonymous figures. The chairs themselves become symbols, not merely of rest, but of societal order and the commodification of relaxation. Like ancient Roman seating arrangements in amphitheaters, there’s a structured hierarchy, with each chair offering a space for individual repose within a collective experience. Consider the motif of the chair throughout history—from thrones of power to simple domestic seats—its form and function continuously evolve, reflecting shifting cultural values. Here, the chairs' ordered arrangement suggests a modern, almost industrial approach to leisure, and the desire to escape from the industrial world to the seaside. This echoes the cyclical human longing for both order and escape, a dialectic that persists through time.