Flaneur

For this project, we were supposed to go around and take pictures of our surroundings. I chose to go to Rye beach which is about twenty minutes away because the beach has always held a great deal of meaning to me. I find peace and relaxation there, and I desperately wanted to try and capture this same sort of feelings in my photographs. I know that photographing at the beach can sometimes be generic or repetitive, so I attempted to capture pictures that held more meaning to me personally, and could make the viewer feel something as well. When I got to the beach, I noticed all the seagulls there who were digging in the sand to find crabs buried underneath. They furociously pecked at them, pulling them apart and I found this to be very interesting, and a good subject to take photographs of. I loved the look of them flying away with crabs in their mouths, and I thought it was a great decisive moment to capture. Some social features that appear in my images are all the objects and things I found around the beach, like the bicycle and the dog. It was apparent that so many people came to the beach that day, probably because they enjoyed the tranquility of the water as much as I.

Some of my most favorite pictures were of my friend Anna, who I brought along with me because it was her birthday. I loved taking candid photos of her with her toes sunk in the sand or capturing her looking at the seagulls and the rush of the waves. I could tell she was enjoying her time there, and I loved being able to capture that on camera when she wasn’t aware of it. I think the pictures I took of her show the kind of effect nature can have on someone, and culturally reveal that all people need to be next to nature to find some sort of peace and happiness. There were so many people walking on the beach that day, and I truly enjoyed being able to capture people strolling along, reading, or playing with their dogs. Not to mention, the pictures I took of the ocean, the shells, and the seagulls themselves showed how diverse the beach was, and how intrinsically beautiful everything was on their own and together as a whole.