BEACH JEWELS

I like walking in general, whether in city or in country, in desert, a park or on a hill; but walking on an ocean beach has always meant something special to me. Few sensuous pleasures in life match the immediacy and intimacy that a barefoot walk on wet sand on the ocean shore offers. For this reason my frequent visits to Southern California to spend meaningful stretched periods of time every few months with my mother and rest of family have the added attraction for me of being able to go to the beach as often as I like. And, needless to say, I never return from a walk without a few new pictures of apparently the same scene, because nothing in nature is the same at two moments. Every wave is different from the preceding one; and light changes constantly whether one notices it or not.

The pictures in this book were taken during walks on the beach at Ventura Harbor within the span of a few days. I had walked here many times before and had seen pieces of kelp scattered on the sand. This time though there was something different about them; it seemed like the waves of the ocean had just dropped them off fresh-bathed and newly polished in gold. In the light of the setting sun the slender tendrils and grape-shaped eardrops looked transparent and translucent. The random shapes they took as the waves receded looked like experiments in jewelry design. I am not much of a lover of regular jewelery, but the visual pleasure of this gift of nature felt like a personal favor of the sea to me.