Readers' lives; This month: The beach

Your assignment

Each month we set readers a photographic assignment and offer them the chance to have their picture published on this page. Please send your photographs (preferably in print form, and with your name and daytime telephone number on the back) to Readers' Lives, The Independent Magazine, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL. The winning entries will be showcased throughout the month. Winners will receive a bottle of either Champagne or olive oil (please state preference). Photographs cannot be returned.

This week's winner

This photograph was taken at Blackpool's North Beach by student Simon Barber. "It was earlier this month, at about nine in the morning, the tide was right out," he recalls. "The crowds hadn't emerged yet, and it looked almost surreal, this pink ice-cream van on an empty beach."

September's brief

The theme for next month is "The journey". Please see "Your Assignment", left, for details of how to enter.