The ocean is changing, repetitive, and stable. Waves crash steadily onto the beach as the horizon stretches limitlessly before us. the translucence of time is the first chapter in a series that examines our relationship with the natural world and our perception of infinity through composite photographs of the sea exhibited at monumental scale.

I spent my childhood at the seashore, in the water, or on the sand listening to the rhythm of the waves as I read or dozed. Over the past seven years, I have fashioned a conceptual and technical framework to respond the ocean - not to its outward appearance, but its emotional resonance. This work is a way to recapture the psychological space of the ocean and my deep connection to it by looking at the ocean through the translucence of time.

Time and again, I pointed my camera at the waves, yet my photographs invariably showed it inert - motionless in time - never revealing its alchemy, its mystery, its allure. This failure created an emotional and intellectual puzzle that prompted me to rethink how I approached the sea as a subject. I needed to convey the transience of the sea and create order from the seemingly random, undulating, and interconnected structures of the rolling waters. My photographs witness events that can only be seen through an active photographic process.

Photographs are said to freeze time, and most exposures are short enough that the passage of time is not apparent. While we have become accustomed to what is often called ‘straight photography,’ this style is not adequate to convey my experience of the ocean. By leaving the camera’s shutter open for several seconds, making several exposures, and combining them into a single image, I create photographs that, while not traditionally sharp, suggest the fleeting nature of the sea.

Printed at monumental scale, my photographs create a psychological space that envelopes the viewer, while their aspect ratio approximates our field of vision as we gaze at the vista of the ocean’s limitless horizon - the nothing you see when you forget you are looking, a place that is not a place.

 

The ocean calls to me. These photographs are my response.