BEFORE SUNRISE
Photographed 2019-2021
These photographs are about what happens around us within less than an hour every morning. If you don't stop and look, you miss it. This was a chance for me to stop, look, and preserve it.
This is what happens around us within less than an hour every morning.
These images were taken in Ormond Beach, a stretch of beach I’ve been walking every morning for over 50 years.
“While the project of photographing Before Sunrise may seem like a departure from my previous work, at a fundamental level, it’s quite similar in the way I approach and compose a scene. I can physically feel when the light and composition is just right.
With my black and white landscapes, I created vignettes of nature along with broad scenes by photographing in the late afternoon. Whereas for this beach landscape, I chose before sunrise to create these soft scenes. Once the sun is up, the light is harsher and the sea lacks a sense of mystery which makes it seem less interesting. But before sunrise, the light gives us all the elements of mystery and beauty because the light is softer and makes the sea more approachable in a strange way.
Just as with my previous work, timing is a big factor in creating an image that has the desired look I want to achieve. I have to quickly decide where I want to be, because most times, there’s no do-overs for missed opportunities. After a while I developed a sense of where the light was going to be for what I wanted to photograph on that particular day.
These photographs are about what happens around us within less than an hour every morning. If you don’t stop and look, you miss it. This was a chance for me to stop, look, and preserve it.”