Facing the sea
- 📍 Location: Audresselles, Côte d’Opale, France
- 📅 Date: 2022
The tide had pulled right back and left a whole platform of flat rock uncovered, every block furred with green weed and separated by shallow channels. The texture of that foreground is the first thing the picture gives you, and it fills more than half the frame.
Far out, near the waterline, a single person stands facing the water. They are very small and I made no attempt to bring them closer. The distance between the viewer and that figure is the measurement the photograph exists to take.
The light was hazy and almost without direction, which flattened the sea into a pale band and drained the colour out of the sky. That helps: with no drama above the horizon, the eye stays down on the rocks and travels out along them rather than being pulled upward.
Low tide on this coast uncovers a landscape that only exists for a few hours and then is gone again until the next day. I like photographing things on that kind of borrowed time, and I like that the person in the frame had clearly come out for the same reason.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
