Arts Design

CHROMATIC WAVES NOW

CLARK LITTLE

Originally from Napa, California, award-winning photographer Clark Little was raised in the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Before he took his amazing shots of the ocean, he was known for his surfing at the Waimea Bay shore break. He made quite a name for himself in the 80’s and 90’s for taking off on the most dangerous waves and somehow gracefully gliding through them in one-piece.

In 2007, Little realized his passion for the waves when his wife asked him to snap some pictures to decorate their bedroom wall. Little jumped on his surfboard with a waterproof camera in hand and went deep into the ocean. It was then that he realized that his passion for waves and the ocean was more than just ocean-deep. He wanted to capture the unique and dangerous perspective of the inside of waves just as much as he wanted to ride them.

“Clark’s view,” that inner-wave perspective, is what got Little his world-wide recognition, landing exhibitions in Japan, Canada, Brazil and throughout the United States. His work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum, among other museums, and featured in National Geographic, the New York Times, LIFE and many more.

In November 2009, Clark Little published his first book, The Shorebreak Art of Clark Little. And in January 2011, he opened up his own place, the Clark Little Gallery Haleiwa in his hometown of Haleiwa, Hawaii, a few feet away from the very magic of his photography takes place.

Only half a year ago, Little published his second book Shorebreak, a 160-page wave and ocean photography book which features waves not just from Haleiwa, but from Maui, Kauai, Big Island, California, Japan, and French Polynesia. This book, more than just the average coffee table book, serves as a portfolio of Little’s best work from all his experiences and travels in the past years.

“The shorebreak is my comfort zone. I absolutely love it. It's always different. The light, the colors, the water, the sand and what happens to it. And to be there to capture it and share it with the world... what a dream.”

- Clark Little

FLOTO+WARNER

Jeremy Floto and Cassandra Warner, otherwise known as Floto+Warner, a New York duo of artists, create beautiful shots of suspended materials in mid-air. Though not waves, technically, their images certainly resemble the crashing ocean tides. In their recent Colourant series, they experimented with the idea of interrupting landscapes while travelling in Nevada and Iowa.

The couple had been toying around with the concept for quite a while, but it wasn’t until recently that they achieved exactly what they were thinking of. “We’ve always been interested in landscape and sculpture,” said Floto in an interview with Wired, “So this was kind of a culmination of all those things coming together…These really are like temporary sculptures, and we were just really fascinated by how they took on such a different life.”

The power of Floto+Warner’s series lies in this physical graffiti’s ability to straddle the line of perspective. While looking like buckets of colorful water tossed in front of a camera, they also resemble mysterious 3-D objects that are both a part and apart from the landscape surrounding them.

Their shots were taken at a shutter speed of 1/3200s. Combining the modern tradition that pictures must contain motion, energy and flux, the Colourant series truly captures living momentum. In order to capture the correct tension between the suspended bursts of water and landscapes, Floto+Warner filled two-gallon buckets of water and threw them dozens of times before achieving perfection.

With some shots resembling that of rigid sculptures and others of blooming, fluid flowers, Floto and Warner’s art is at the very core of all that is beautiful and different about modern art.

Thanks to Kimberly Walker for contributions on this segment!

Read more about Beautiful Waves, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Waves in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 08.03.14. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!