The 100 Day Project #33

Alone Together

Venice Beach, CA, 2009

The 100 Day Project, Day 33

I made this photograph — Alone Together — moments after Wave Longing, the image I shared on Day 1, the one that hangs in my bedroom and changes every time I look at it. Same beach. Same afternoon. I had simply turned right and walked a few paces.

That's the lesson, really.

What I love about this image is the reflections. Low tide had pulled the water back and left the sand mirror-smooth, turning the beach into a reflecting pool catching strangers moving through their own private moments — a child crouching to examine something in the sand, a man walking with his boogie board. Figures scattered across the frame, each absorbed in their own world. Each of them unaware of my presence.

I think about this often, both as a photographer and as a person moving through the world. The practice of spinning in place — literally changing my viewpoint to see what is around me — consistently reveals what a fixed position cannot. A different angle of light, layers of a landscape that open or close. A moment that was present, ready to be appreciated.

We do this in life too. The same circumstances look entirely different depending on where we position ourselves within them. The view from one direction can feel like an ending. Turn around, and it becomes a beginning.

About the 100 Day Project: A global creative challenge where thousands of artists share a piece of their practice every single day for 100 days. I'm joining creatives around the world, and I'm excited to bring you along. Each day I'll be sharing one of my photos — some recent, some old, and some from my current project — along with the story behind it: where I was, who I was with, and why I love it.