Freezing moments through changing tides

Making sense of impermanence

Over the years, I have come to understand that the beach is a metaphor for the impermanence in life.  The moments I capture on the beach are fleeting and in a constant flux. Of course that doesn’t make these moments less meaningful. In fact, it’s their transience that makes them beautiful.

Those who have been following my work know that I visit a public beach in South India at least twice a year. Over the years it has become a kind of ritual! And I think a photographic series is now emerging from these visits. I look forward to sharing my  beach photographs with you every now and then dear reader.

The beach comes across to me as a living, breathing space with diverse stories. It is interesting to observe how people coexist in this shared space. Each individual moment becomes a part of a larger, interconnected tapestry of life. I am struck by the fact that people occupy the same space in different ways: gingerly step into the water or run joyfully to crash against a large wave, concoct and play various games or just gaze, contemplate, dream and enjoy. Each one experiences the beach in their own unique way.

Many a times when I photograph the beach, I focus less on the grand, sweeping landscape and turn my attention to the smaller stories that grab my attention. For example, adolescent boys playing in the ocean, carefree and oblivious to the world outside, a solitary man watching the sea, a couple trying to make sense of the world they live in and so on.

The ocean's waves are in constant motion, yet there is a deep sense of calm and peace that comes from watching them. The contrast of movement and stillness, of chaos and tranquillity are a perfect reflection of life.  The beach is like a visual poem on life’s beauty, fragility, and change. A beach, I therefore feel, is a perfect metaphor for life. The changing tides and fleeting moments have layers of deep meaning. Just as the tide rises and falls, moments also come and go sometimes unnoticed.

Life is in perpetual motion and all we can do is capture the moments as they pass by, hold on to them for as long as we can, and then let them go. As photographers we live with the knowledge that this is a circle of beginnings and endings and that there will always be new beginnings for us to capture.

©Shital Morjaria

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