The photographs were taken in July/August 1998 in the northern English seaside town of Bridlington and were a gift from David Hockney to Cavan O'Brien. O'Brien worked for Marlborough Gallery in London in the late 1960s and early 1970s where he represented Hockney and other influential artists such as Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and Henry Moore. O'Brien moved to Bridlington in 1996 and was joined there two years later by David Hockney who left Los Angeles to be closer to his mother and brother. Hockney's dear friend and muse Celia Birtwell, who also knew O'Brien well, reintroduced the two men.
The first photograph in the "album" (a repurposed petty cash book containing 28 c-prints), is of Hockney's own reflection in one of the windows of Cavan's home; others include casual shots of the seafront and passers-by, as well as casual portraits of Hockney's sister-in-law Anne and Cavan.