Recommended Photography Book: Ray Collins Found At Sea (2014)

I attended Ray Collins’ book launch at Ryan’s Hotel in Thirroul on Friday 12 December. He is a brilliant local ocean photographer who transforms variable sea conditions into extraordinary visual sculptures. Although originally a surf photographer, Collins has evolved into a serious visual artist. I enjoyed the night: no speeches- a cool but innocuous DJ out the back & a nice roll out of quality grub- & the affable Ray happily signing many boxes of books & copies of his impressive prints.

Found At Sea is packed with hundreds of sparkingly sharp images. Roughly about half of the still photos are surfboard related  and the rest- to me more spectacular- of the jagged, wild contours of the sea.

Collins is clear and sparse in his commentary. He establishes for the reader the specific context of most shots, but thankfully, he provides no grand statement of his artist intent. Near the end of the book Collins says that while shooting the mad Pipeline waves in Hawaii from the water in February 2008, he realised “that I wanted to shoot empty waves.” Find the Pipeline photo here: http://raycollinsphoto.com/collections/store/products/pipeline-peak#.VJKtv2SUdVM

UPDATE: 17 February 2015

Ray Collins was recently awarded the 2015 Nikon Australian Surf Photo of the year for his photo ‘Convection’.

Find an article here: http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2887305/stunning-surf-image-awarded/

Note that the 1st Edition of the book has been sold out & the 2nd Edition will be shipped out on 8th May 2015.

RESOURCES:

Find Ray Collins' website here: http://raycollinsphoto.com/

Have a look at this excellent video of Ray at work from his site: http://raycollinsphoto.com/pages/seastills

Buy his new book Found At Sea here: http://raycollinsphoto.com/products/found-at-sea#.VJKgYGSUdVM