This Photographer Turns Ordinary Seaside Views Into Dreamy Pastel Worlds That Look Straight Out Of The 1980s

Imagine a summer vacation where the sky is always pink, the ocean glows electric blue, and every sunset looks like the cover of a forgotten 1980s synth-pop album.

That’s pretty much the world of British photographer Nathan Head, whose candy-colored landscapes transform familiar places into something wonderfully unreal. Swimming pools shimmer in impossible shades of turquoise and magenta, palm trees stand against lavender skies, and ordinary seaside buildings look like they’ve been transported into a pastel-colored dream.

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Head calls his distinctive visual style “Chromatic Nostalgism,” a fitting name for photography that feels like a memory of a holiday you never actually took. His process begins with real photographs, which he transforms through extensive color grading and digital editing. Inspired by Japanese city pop, K-pop music videos, and the warm Mediterranean light he encountered during a trip to the Balearic Islands in 2016, he has developed a palette built around the playful tension between warm and cool colors.

Growing up in the English coastal town of Bournemouth helped shape his fascination with the sea, which remains one of his favorite subjects. In 2019, he created “You Know Where To Find Me,” a photograph of ocean waves that helped define his signature aesthetic. There’s something delightfully escapist about his images: they capture the feeling of long summer evenings, salty air, and carefree afternoons, only with the saturation turned up to eleven.