French photographer Ben thord Has created a acclaimed career by capturing the power of water and poetry. His amazing pictures are a visual love letter for the sea.
For Ben thordThe ocean has always been higher than a subject, leading to a pioneering passion for photography to combine its lifetime passion for the sea. It is a house, museum and a lifetime partner. Picked up near the sea and spending most parts of his puberty on his father’s sebot, he developed an initial attachment to his life shaped water.
Photography almost entered the photo by accident, when as a teenager, he tucks one of his father’s old cameras at home. Curious, he started buying and using some roles of the film, shot everything around him. Before a long time, his eye returned to the place he loved the most: the coastline. They took pictures of the game of across the sea, surfing, and across the water.
“The ocean has always been my first and biggest passion. I have been raised from the sea, spent a lot of time on my father’s sebot, and always deeply loved and praised for the sea,” Thaord says.
Maintaining his love for the ocean with its new passion to create an image, Theord quickly realized that photography could be more than a pastime. It became a calling. His dedication first took him to air, where he submerged himself to the surf community, and eventually in Tahiti, where he has been surrounded by the atmosphere that has been surrounded by the environment that inspires him.
Find a style under the surface
Over the years, Thord refined a style that is as much about immersion as it is about documentation. Instead of remaining an observer from the edge, they chose to enter the water, using their camera to capture textures, forms and movements that are invisible from the land. This approach defined his trajectory as a water photographer, moving towards deep personal artistic projects focusing on lighting and ocean interactions from traditional surf images.
“Being in love with the sea, I had to bring my camera into the water and documentation of amazing light and texture that could be found below the surface. I started as a surf photographer, and slowly dedicated my entire time to my personal project, in which I tried to show surfing, waves and beauty of water,”
For the thord, the painting has always played a role in shaping its vision. As a child, he portrayed and portrayed the waves, and this sensitivity remains in their photography today. Using slow shutter motion, he introduces the quality of a fluid, painter that softens the rawness of the sea and turns it into some abstract and emotional.
“I use a very slow shutter speed to see the painter form. My ultimate goal is to be able to transmit the feeling that I feel while taking these pictures into the sea,” they say.
Long work of a body of work
The process of thord is long, patient and shaped by sea rhythm. A project often starts without direction, just spent swimming in water over time, the camera in the hand, seeing how the light changes, how the water moves, and how the texture comes out of the tongue, weather and sunlight. This phase can last for months or even years, and only later, after reviewing hundreds of thousands of images, a clear story begins to reveal itself.
“Most of the time I start walking with my camera, just paying a lot of attention to light, texture, movement, movement and any beauty and I can present any beauty under the surface. I can shoot for a month.
When a direction emerges at the end, it becomes a guiding principle for the next several years of work. Re -dedicates itself to discover the subject from every possible angle, using various lenses and techniques to expand the body of the work. Waiting for the right circumstances can be long, sometimes before the same image, but this patience is the same that allows him to catch the moments of unique beauty.
The editing process is equally rigid. Sorting through the huge archives, the thord slowly constitutes its selection for a handful of images that work together in the sequence. For him, a book is the same as the work of art as the pictures are carrying themselves.
“Creating a book is another thing, but it is probably my favorite aspect of photography. I like to work on the fencing, finding photos, who work together, prepare a photo book all the way to design and print. After a few years of work, holding that book in my hand is a huge relief and a huge reward,” Says “.
A persistent passion with water
During his career, water remains a constant subject. Each of his three art books understand this subject in a different way. The surface revealed the world inside barreling waves. The turbulance rotated its lens under the impact zone, capturing the chaotic vortex created by the collapse of the surf. Their latest work, Aqua Aubskura, focuses on the bubbles photographed with slow shutter speed that transforms them into the form of jellyfish or astronomical bodies.
“Yes, water. I think I am normally obsessed with water and waves, or the ocean. I have done three personal art books about water photography and I will not see myself doing anything else,” says Thaord.
Instead of getting away from the subject to find something new, the thord finds endless variation within it. What may be repetitive to others, it remains an infinite source of curiosity and beauty for him, each project highlights a new approach on an environment that he has spent in a lifetime study.
Gear’s role and ocean demand
While the thord accepts the importance of the equipment, he is quick to explain that the technology is only one piece of equation. Shooting in water introduces challenges that go beyond cameras and lenses. Physical endurance, rest in heavy surf, and experience in the fear of ocean movement is important as technical aspects of photography.
“This is something to take a picture, it’s something else to move in water. Walking in water leads to great physical condition and knowledge. Catching your camera through water residence, ensuring that you have the right set up without a fall of water at the port, the right lens is a big challenge of water,” Thoward tells.
Expectation is probably the most essential skills. The speed of the ocean movement makes the reaction impossible. To be successful, a photographer must predict moments before it is, to easily adjust to catch a fleeting pattern of disappearance and waterfall in a moment.
“Everything in the water is slow and tall. When you see that the photo is getting up is too late. You have to predict the moment that is able to capture it,” they say.
Aqua inaccuracy
Currently, the attention of Thord is on his upcoming book, Aqua inaccuracySet for release in early October. The project, the culmination of several years of work will be promoted through exhibitions in Europe and the United States. A pressley campaign lasts till 24 September, which gives collectors and ocean enthusiastic people an opportunity to secure a copy before publication.
“Share your love for the ocean through these tasks is my favorite thing in life,” Tord says.
For Ben thordEach new body of work is more than the years of the discovery of the patient, it is a way to translate the living poem of the sea into images that talk to the soul. Through his photography, he to see the audience to enter the water with him, to see the dancing of light and wave, to feel the sea rhythm, power and peace, and to share in amazement, and wonder to make his abstract frame to realize his lifelong devotion to capture his abstract frame by the frame.
Image Credit: Ben thord
