Tone of that Day

The 2018 swell that hit Nias was unlike anything I had seen at Lagundri Bay. What arrived that week went well beyond the usual scale of the break, the kind of swell that changes the character of a place entirely and asks something different of everyone in the water.

The bay was an echo of thunder, heavy swell drawing across the reef in thick rolling barrels, coconut palms in the background, the tropical air dense with spray and moisture. The kind of atmosphere you feel before you see it.

The water that day was deeply discoloured, churned brown by the force of the swell moving through the reef. Technically honest but visually distracting in colour. I made the decision to present this in sepia, a tone that still reflects the brown of those dirty barrels while reducing everything else to its essential form. Storm, wave, palm, reef.

What remained was the document. The thunder of that swell, held still.