Photographer’s Enchanting Images Seize the Ocean’s Hidden Poetry

French photographer Ben Thouard has constructed an acclaimed profession by capturing water’s energy and poetry. His beautiful photos are a visible love letter to the ocean.

For Ben Thouard, the ocean has all the time been greater than a topic, resulting in mixing his lifelong ardour for the ocean with a painterly strategy to images. It is dwelling, muse, and lifelong companion. Raised close to the ocean and spending a lot of his youth on his father’s sailboat, he developed an early attachment to the water that formed his life.

Photography entered the image nearly by chance, when, as a youngster, he found one among his father’s previous cameras tucked away at dwelling. Curious, he purchased a number of rolls of movie and started experimenting, capturing every thing round him. Before lengthy, his eye returned to the place he cherished most: the shoreline. He photographed seascapes, buddies browsing, and the play of sunshine throughout the water.

“The ocean has always been my first and biggest passion. I have been raised by the sea, spent a lot of time on my dad’s sailboat, and have always had a profound love and admiration for the ocean,” Thouard says.

By combining his love of the ocean together with his newfound ardour for image-making, Thouard shortly realized images might be greater than a pastime. It grew to become a calling. His dedication led him first to Hawaii, the place he immersed himself within the surf neighborhood, and finally to Tahiti, the place he has lived for the previous 17 years, surrounded by the atmosphere that continues to encourage him.

Finding a Style Beneath the Surface

Over the years, Thouard refined a method that’s as a lot about immersion as it’s about documentation. Rather than remaining an observer from the shore, he selected to enter the water itself, utilizing his digicam to seize textures, types, and actions which might be invisible from land. This strategy outlined his trajectory as a water photographer, shifting from conventional surf photos to deeply private creative tasks targeted on the interplay of sunshine and ocean.

“Being in love with the ocean, I had to get my camera in the water and document the amazing light and texture that can 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 showcase the beauty of surfing, waves, and water in general,” Thouard explains.

For Thouard, portray has all the time performed a job in shaping his imaginative and prescient. As a baby, he sketched and painted waves, and that sensibility stays in his images at the moment. By utilizing gradual shutter speeds, he introduces a fluid, painterly high quality that softens the rawness of the ocean and transforms it into one thing summary and emotional.

“I use a lot of slow shutter speed in order to create that painterly look. My ultimate goal is to be able to transmit the emotion that I feel while taking these photos in the ocean,” he says.

The Long Work of Building a Body of Work

Thouard’s course of is lengthy, affected person, and formed by the rhythms of the ocean. A undertaking usually begins with out route, merely with time spent floating within the water, digicam in hand, observing how the sunshine shifts, how the water strikes, and the way textures emerge from likelihood interactions of tide, climate, and daylight. This stage can final months and even years, and solely later, after reviewing lots of of hundreds of photos, does a transparent narrative start to disclose itself.

“Most of the time I start by floating around with my camera, just observing and paying a lot of attention to light, textures, movement and any beauty I can spot below the surface. I could be shooting for a month by simply being attracted by what I found interesting but without really knowing the sense of it all,” Thouard explains.

When a route lastly emerges, it turns into the tenet for the following a number of years of labor. Thouard then devotes himself to exploring the theme from each attainable angle, utilizing completely different lenses and methods to develop the physique of labor. The await the proper situations could be lengthy, typically months earlier than a single picture is made, however this persistence is what permits him to seize moments of singular magnificence.

The modifying course of is equally rigorous. Sorting by huge archives, Thouard step by step narrows his alternatives to a handful of photos that work collectively in sequence. For him, constructing a e-book is as a lot an act of artwork as taking the pictures themselves.

“Making a book is another thing but it is probably my favorite aspect of photography. I love working on selections, finding photos that work together, laying out a photo book all the way to design and printing. Holding that book in your hand after a couple years of work is a huge relief and a huge reward,” Thouard says.

A Persistent Obsession with Water

Across his profession, water stays the fixed topic. Each of his three artwork books explores the topic in a definite manner. Surface revealed the world inside barreling waves. Turbulences turned its lens beneath the impression zone, capturing chaotic vortexes created by collapsing surf. His latest work, Aqua Obscura, focuses on bubbles photographed with gradual shutter speeds that rework them into types resembling jellyfish or celestial our bodies.

“Yes, water. I think I am obsessed with water and waves, or the ocean in general. I have done three personal art books about water photography and I would not see myself doing anything else,” Thouard says.

Rather than shifting away from the topic to discover one thing new, Thouard finds countless variation inside it. What might sound repetitive to others stays for him a boundless supply of curiosity and wonder, every undertaking uncovering a recent perspective on an atmosphere he has spent a lifetime finding out.

The Role of Gear and the Demands of the Ocean

While Thouard acknowledges the significance of apparatus, he’s fast to level out that expertise is just one piece of the equation. Shooting within the water introduces challenges that transcend cameras and lenses. Physical endurance, consolation in heavy surf, and expertise in anticipating ocean motion are as crucial because the technical points of images.

“It is something to take a photo, it is something else to take it in the water. Moving in the water takes great physical conditions and knowledge. Holding your camera through a water housing, making sure you have the right set up, the right lens, without water drop on your front port is the big challenge of water,” Thouard explains.

Anticipation is probably essentially the most important ability. The velocity of ocean motion makes response not possible. To succeed, a photographer should predict moments earlier than they happen, adjusting instinctively to seize fleeting patterns of sunshine and water that vanish right away.

“In the water everything is slower and longer. When you see the photo happening it is too late. You have to predict the moment to be able to capture it,” he says.

Aqua Obscura

At current, Thouard’s focus is on his forthcoming e-book, Aqua Obscura, set for launch in early October. The undertaking, the end result of a number of years of labor, will probably be promoted by exhibitions in Europe and the United States. A presale marketing campaign runs till September 24, giving collectors and ocean fans the chance to safe a duplicate forward of publication.

“Sharing my love for the ocean through these works is my favorite thing in life,” Thouard says.

For Ben Thouard, every new physique of labor is greater than years of affected person exploration, it’s a strategy to translate the ocean’s dwelling poetry into photos that talk to the soul. Through his images, he beckons viewers to enter the water with him, to witness the dance of sunshine and wave, to really feel the rhythm, energy, and serenity of the ocean, and to share within the awe and marvel that fuels his lifelong devotion to capturing its essence body by body.

Image credit: Ben Thouard