Pacific Dreamin’

About This Portfolio

The prints are of people and dogs, lifeguard stands, cars and motorcycles, situated at the border of sea and land. Elsewhere in the world a beach means frolic and vacation time; in California it is that, and also a space for deep internal reflection. Two hundred years of westward expansion have brought us to this edge of the New World, where the rugged land of the expansive yet finite American West meets the unfathomable depth of the untamed Pacific Ocean.

This body of photographs is about the borderland of land, sea, and sky; about the communities on the coast; the unique culture of Route 1 — heading north or south, matters not — and the solitude that gazing out at the unknown engenders. This ocean, so powerful and present, draws you toward it, hypnotizes you, and creates a sense of awe that can only be described as spiritual. Some frolic in it, others fall into deep contemplation, and some photograph it.

Most images contain elements of sea, sky, and land, with the horizon as a strong compositional element and off-centered subjects precariously balancing the compositions. In capture and printing, the colors are conceived as blossoming from the white light, in an attempt to hold the atmospheric elements of the rarefied air of the sea. All images are digital capture made with older manual lenses, from many of California’s most iconic beaches — Mendocino, the Sonoma and Marin coasts, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and the Monterey/Carmel Peninsula, and south from the Central Coast to Santa Barbara and San Diego.

All prints are archival pigment on rag papers.

All images are available for purchase · prices range from $300 to $3,000 depending on size and edition · inquire or call 415-509-5388