This summer, I had the great pleasure of doing one of the things that I love to do the most: be by the sea, the Mediterranean, to be more exact. We took a ferry from Nice to the island of Corsica, France. Because of where I grew up, on the coast of Massachusetts along the Atlantic coast of the United States, and later in California on the Pacific coast, I feel most at home there. I love the mountains. They are magnificent, majestic, and awesome, but I love the sea more! I love the sun, the sand, the heat, the boats, the colors, the sweat, and hiking on the coast. Having lunch with my wife, Michelle, on some secluded jetty, having dinner at some seaside resto, and walking around a local marina to look at all the boats, I love the sea!

On the ferry ride from Nice to Bastia, or back from Ajaccio to Toulon, we had six hours in each direction to make ourselves comfortable and entertained. A relaxing day of sun and sea, and the beauty of it hit me immediately. I was experiencing something new and seeing things I had never seen, and it was fascinating to me. In this day of COVID, and it being off-season, the boat was not packed, but just full enough to have some space.

I spent a lot of time outside looking, wandering, and wondering, from the high vantage points on the upper decks to looking upwards from the lower decks. What beauty and symmetry there is here. Whether you were at the home camp (in the lounge) or off on a trek around the decks or the interior floors, there were plenty of people doing a whole lot of pondering, sleeping, eating, and drinking.

Corsica is long sandy beaches that lead directly to craggy rises. It is the best of both worlds: the sea and the mountains. Corsica is an island of contrasting beauty and ruggedness. There is no middle ground, no valleys with grand meadows where animals graze. It is like a mountain range dropped in the middle of the sea, surrounded by magnificent beaches. We spent the days along the sea and then the evenings in the tiny villages above the beach, high in the hills, with extraordinary perspectives of the island dressed in its finest colors. We ate and drank with the locals and couldn’t wait to part from the tourist scenes. Whether we out-hiked them to a lonely beach or drove out of the cities, we loved the Corsica they were not privy to.

Corsica is so rugged and beautiful. It has extraordinarily contemplative effects on you. The beauty is jaw-dropping, stop-you-in-your-tracks gorgeous, and thoroughly intoxicating. So, I thought that it would be a good idea to capture people in that moment of arresting awe, not necessarily from the front, but definitely in that moment. It allows you a little time to compose your shot. I had been studying the background and the lighting as I walked, and I had time to scope out the mood of people that I photographed, so now I could concentrate on my subjects, framing, and composition. I want my photographs to convey the apparent beauty I see in people’s lives and the symmetry that I see in the world that they live in. I hope you like them!