This image was the first picture I ever took using Portra film in a medium-format camera.

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

It seems appropriate that it is an image of a sunrise over the sea, because I love photographing water, and the sea in particular. What makes it so magical? I think there are two main reasons.

The first is that seascapes are one of the few things that have stayed the same throughout history. When you stand on the shore and look at the sea, it looks the same as it did to the dinosaurs, or the Ancient Greeks. There’s a great series of seascapes by the Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto that plays with the idea that the meeting of water and sky is a scene untouched by time.

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The second is that photographing water is really a way of photographing light itself. Think of the way sunlight bounces off the water, or the way the sea’s colour changes endlessly depending on the colour of the sky and the position of the sun. The sea is just a medium through which the light expresses itself, which means there’s something really pure about photographing water.

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kirstin