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About this photograph
A daytime long exposure capturing the sea flowing over a granite mount at Contos South.
A long exposure made in daylight, which requires heavy neutral density to hold the shutter open long enough for the water to move. What the technique does is separate the two things in the frame by their behaviour: the granite is absolutely still, and the sea, over the same seconds, becomes a single continuous flow across it.
Photographed at normal shutter speeds this is a rock with waves hitting it. Held open, it becomes a picture about duration — how long the granite has been there against how briefly any particular piece of water is.
About the Contos coastline
Contos is a neighbouring stretch of the same granite-and-limestone coastline that runs through Calgardup Bay, within the Cape to Cape country south of Margaret River. It is harder, rockier ground than Redgate — reefs and granite mounds standing in moving water.
The Contos photographs sit alongside the Georgette work as part of the same survey of this coast: the same swell, the same light, the same weather systems that put the Georgette on the beach in 1876.
The full account of the wreck — the failed pumps, the lifeboat, Grace Bussell and Sam Isaacs, and the inquiry that followed — is set out in the story of the SS Georgette. The research behind it is described in the author's preface.
About the print
Printed to order on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, a 100% cotton archival paper, and supplied with an edition number. Free shipping within Australia.
