You've Never seen Waves Like this Before

#Photography #RachaelTalibart #Waves

Photographer Rachael Talibart grew up in West Essex, on England's southeast coast and often went sailing on her father's sailboat in the summer. Her fascination with the sea continued when she became a photographer and her new series Sirens reflects that. Each image is named after a mythological-esque figure. This one is called Niobe Photo. Rachael Talibart

Growing up in southeast England, Rachael Talibart spent several weeks every summer on her father’s sailboat, exploring the coastlines of France and the Netherlands. These family voyages were meant as a vacation, although Talibart never had much fun—she was a "shockingly bad sailor" who was almost constantly seasick. Because her nausea was worse inside the boat, she spent most of her time alone in the cockpit, looking out over the ocean.

"I spent ages staring at the waves," she remembers. "I used to imagine creatures in the sea."

Talibart, now a celebrated photographer, remains both frightened and fascinated by the sea, a tension she explores in her new series, Sirens, which was recently shortlisted for a Sony World Photography Award and will go on exhibition at the Sohn Fine Art Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts in September. The visually sumptuous photographs were all taken on Newhaven Beach in East Sussex, which Talibart began visiting weekly in 2016, arriving at dawn and waiting hours in hopes of catching the perfect light and weather.

One day in February 2016, during Storm Imogen, everything came together. Thanks to an extra high tide, a strong wind, and a sun that kept breaking through the clouds, the waves were large and crashing—and perfectly lit. Lying on her back, her feet to the ocean, Talibart used telescopic lenses and an ultra-fast 1,000 frames/second shutter speed to capture the towers and troughs of foam-flecked seawater. All those hours and days studying the sea had prepared her. "It’s about understanding the sea, knowing when a wave is coming, being able to predict what it’s likely to do so I can get the shot," she explains.

Thanks to their dramatic lighting, the waves look almost sculptural. "We never see that with our eyes, because the waves’ movement stops us from noticing the incredible shapes," Talibart points out. "By using a fast shutter speed, I can freeze that motion." She began shooting the series in black and white, her preferred palette, but in October 2017, during Storm Brian, she switched over to near-monochromatic, desaturated color to capture the unexpected bursts of green she began noticing in the waves.

Talibart still can’t help thinking of sea creatures when she looks at the photographs. Inspired by Homer’s Odyssey, she titled the series Sirens and gave each image the name of a mythological god or goddess. And although she avoids boats these days—she still gets seasick—Talibart credits her childhood sailing adventures with her ocean obsession.

"A part of me is still half-afraid of the sea," she admits. "There’s a fascination and a love for it, but there’s also fear."

By MICHAEL HARDY -05.31.18

Comments

How a Group of Gay Male Ballet Dancers Is Rethinking Masculinity

#Queerness #Dancers #Ballet #Masculinity #Dance #LGBTQ #Gay These men are finding new stages on which to express their #queerness, collapsing gender barriers in the world of dance. 1. The Ballerino When I was 15, I met a dancer from Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet . The company had come to Los Angeles to dance in the Olympic Arts Festival , and my parents volunteered to host a post-performance dinner in our backyard. I recall about 200 people — family friends, Olympic officials and maybe 25 dancers — eating curry (is that right?) off paper plates. But that’s not what this is about. No, this is about the ballerino — my word for him — I met and what he represented to a lonely gay kid in Southern California in 1984, a kid who had never before met another gay person. Earlier that evening, I had seen the dancer turn, leap and smile onstage, expressing through the mute language of ballet who he was. Something about his movement told me he was gay, and I felt ...

4 Strategies for practicing Radical Self-Acceptance

Radical Self-Acceptance Painting by Jennifer Mazzucco #mindfulness #self-judgment #RadicalSelfAcceptance #negativethinkingpatterns #thoughts Radical acceptance involves acknowledging how life unfolds without resistance, even if we don't like things at any given moment. It can take effort to apply this principle. How can we begin to accept our situation and ourselves despite experiencing anxiety, uncertainty, and fear? Why self-acceptance is not the same as complacency. It is essential now, more than ever, to practice radical self-acceptance. This means training ourselves to find inner stability despite unpredictable external circumstances. Ultimately, we are responsible for acknowledging our hidden wounds, which can lead to personal and collective growth. Radical self-acceptance is the opposite of avoiding responsibility or giving up in self-defeat. It requires pushing against old ways of being to open the door to deep healing. Embracing radical self-acceptance allows us to int...

To Conquer Perfectionism, You Only Have to Fail

#Perfection #Perfectionism #Triple5Light.com #Triple5LightTherapy #AfricanAmericantherapist #Therapist People who struggle with perfectionism can find it impossible to move forward if the prospect of failure looms ahead. Perhaps you’re working on a project and have a certain idea of how you’d like it to turn out. In your head, you know exactly how it should look and perform. However, as you sit down to tackle it, all you can see are the many ways it could deviate from this idealized image. This type of situation may not have serious implications other than being a bit frustrating, but what if this desire to be perfect hampers your ability to get things done in a work or other group setting? People can get fed up with you if you constantly insist on redoing everything they start. Perfectionism’s Perils According to Florida State University’s Sarah Redden and colleagues (2022), “Perfectionism is defined as refusing to accept” anything short of “being flawless,” (p. 1), a definition ...

Psychologists Have Created A League Table Of Scary And Revolting Animals Phobias

#Psychology #MentalHealth #Phobias #Animalphobias #Spider #Snake #Dog You may be best advised not to read this article late at night or before you eat. Psychologists at the National Institute of Mental Health and Charles University in the Czech Republic have surveyed a large sample of non-clinical volunteers to gauge their reaction to 24 creatures that are commonly the source of specific animals phobias. The results, published in the British Journal of Psychology, contribute to our understanding of animal phobias and could prove incredibly useful to horror writers. Among the key findings is that spiders were unique in being both intensely fear- and disgust-inducing in equal measure. The researchers said this may be due to their mix of disgusting properties – including their “quirky ‘too-many-legs’ body plan” – combined with the fact they are “…omnipresent in our homes, often lurking in the hidden dark places and capable of fast unpredictable movement.” In other words, the intense ...

Triple5Light Therapy

Search This Blog