Seascapes | Photography | Black and White
Never the same from one moment to the next, the sea presents an ever-changing subject. Ship, boat, rig, and the self occupy the sea – but the never-still waters also demand attention in their own right. The human element of the sea is always fleeting and temporary; and so the waters themselves become a metaphor for the human experience that is had upon them. In this photo essay, Seascapes, the temporary is captured and preserved, the instant of action (or inaction) that can never be precisely repeated, or witnessed, again. Framed by the camera lens, these moments cut through not only their own temporal limits, but their spatial ones also. The camera serves to exclude as much (indeed, more so) as it includes. Outside of the frame, oceanic activity is implied but never seen; just as change is implied beyond the perceived instant captured by the camera. Moments of stillness, then, are created from constant movement and change. The act of photographing the sea implies an appreciation for the individual moment which cannot be appreciated by the human eye alone; the act of viewing the images likewise implies an appreciation for the moments beyond the stillness captured within the frame.
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- Evening – a small sailing craft is moored by a beach in Scotland as it is tossed around by the rough swell. Captured: a moment of tranquility amid the rough tide and winds.
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- Afternoon – a dog walker against the sands recently uncovered by the receding tide.
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- The swollen waters around The Hague in springtime. Sunshine and wind combines for an instant to create these beautiful textures.
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- At low tide, this expanse of rugged rocks is exposed. For the duration of the low-tide, rock pools form, capturing snapshots of the waters’ life-cycle.
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- The cliffs of Scotland’s North East are juxtaposed against the waters of the North Sea. Fishermen stand upon the edge of the rocks as seagulls look on.
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- The waters of the North Sea, shot from a Scottish harbour wall. The distant measure indicates the tide is high as the ashes of a sailor disperse into the waters he loved so much.
Locations: Scotland (East Coast); The Hague (The Netherlands).
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