Gezicht op Biarritz met zee, rotsen en branding 1904

This sepia photograph captures the coast of Biarritz, with its sea, rocks, and surf. There’s something about the way the surf is captured in this tiny print that gives me a thrill, like all the world is contained within this moment. The composition is very horizontal, like a scroll, with the shoreline reaching out in front of us. The monochrome palette has a beautiful texture, the light bouncing off the waves like tiny glimmers of glass. The rocks in the foreground are built up of layers and layers of sediment, the town barely visible in the distance. I love the way the perspective is flattened, so we can see everything at once, the sky, the water, the land, like it is one continuous thing. It reminds me a little of some of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s seascapes, but there's a rawness to this, perhaps born of its age and size. It’s a scene that manages to be both intimate and epic, a testament to the power of the ocean.