Life at the Beach: If it Seems a Little Lonely, It’s Intentional

I’ve learned not to photograph subjects to make a point. I intentionally avoid looking for abstraction, instead I let my instincts, if they are on point, decide what needs to be shot. For a week in beautiful Navarre Beach Florida I noticed, quite naturally, flat geometric patterns and they intrigued me.

It is an underlying metaphor. Again I wasn’t trying to be deep or capture anything specific but the shapes just interested me. In the end, the feeling of separation and detachment naturally showed itself in these photographs.

I liked the fact that the people are small elements, very secondary to a seascape that is raw with power, without the beauty of rich colors. I liked the way the ocean rules the photo and dwarfs anything and anyone against it.

The images jump out at me as detached and separate. The figures are not sad or alienated, just separate and completely autonomous. I’ve written much about the slack tide, the dark open expanse of a life in the midst of change.

My thoughts about the photographs are how I feel, separate, and even a little alienated from my own life as I was comfortable and knew some sort of contentment. That safety and security was replaced with a bit of a long expanse of empty space, possibilities that are just as threatening as they are exciting.

There is a flatness, a simplicity that I am seeking. Maybe even a minimalistic intent. I was searching almost for some sort of icon, some idea of stable dimension to maybe even complement my unstable feeling of truly experiencing life.

It’s a long journey but I am sure I will find the rich colors of the sea, the beautiful collection of relationships and maybe I will find the ocean in a new way. That remains to be seen but here it is, Navarre Beach Florida 2017.