'Found At Sea' by Ray Collins

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
The Depth Test

ray_2746_0.jpgRay Collins' entry into surf photography is an entertaining tale. Endearing even. It's a story of suburban redemption, and although I've only known Ray a short time I always enjoy recounting it.

So clearly I'm not going to let this opportunity pass.

Up until 2008 Ray was a career coal miner. His workplace was deep under the escarpment that abuts his hometown - that being Thirroul in the region more widely known as the Coal Coast.

In this line of work each shift is spent covered in a black lather. A grimy combination of sweat and soot. Not only is it hot and dirty, but it's also physically taxing, so when Ray buckled his knee six years ago while down the mine, it wasn't a surprise. Such injuries are expected of those who work at the literal coal face.

During his convalescence Ray couldn't walk and so sought any diversion possible from the confines of his lounge chair. An unlikely choice for entertainment was to buy a digital camera and read the manual from start to finish – twice. By the time his knee healed Ray had a thorough understanding of the inner workings of his new digital camera: each function, each sensor, each sub-system. All that dry, technical knowledge assimilated into his keen mind.

And when his knee was strong enough to don a pair of flippers and enter the water, Ray applied that knowledge. He proved to be a very good photographer: in two months he had his first published shot, in four months his first cover. Looking at the ocean through a viewfinder things became possible, and when applying his deft command those possibilities became attainable. Ray developed his own style, something that would've been lost to the surfing world had serendipity not intervened.

Thus did Ray became a surf photographer, and thus is the title to his first book explained. More than a cheap pun, Found At Sea is a metaphor of Ray's rescue from an otherwise uncreative life.

Although Ray's talent was measured by how quickly his work was published by surf magazines, in time he rose beyond them. Surf magazines – White Horses notwithstanding – operate to a narrow brief: the surfer is the point of interest in most published photographs. Ray transcended that framework, and the very point when he did is included in Found At Sea. “This is the photo that kicked it all off. I realised I wanted to shoot empty waves,” says the caption to a stunning wide shot of Pipeline.

For the most part surfers are absent in Found At Sea. Where a surfer is in frame they're either a reference point for scale or they're subsumed within the scene. In Ray's world the surfer must share equal billing with the wave, the sky, the light...

With an absence of surfers Found At Sea can't strictly be called a book for surfers. Certainly surfers will instantly be drawn to the images, though when Ray moved away from the 'surf magazine brief' he also moved into territory where anyone who appreciates art will appreciate his work. Ray's photos emphasise form in the manner of a talented sculptor, and they emphasis tone in the manner of a brilliant painter. And like all good art it causes you to see things anew.

Photos of this quality deserve good presentation, and fortunately for Ray he had Gra Murdoch to curate his portfolio and design Found At Sea. Gra is the editor/designer of the aforementioned White Horses and Found At Sea shares the same august design principle. It's clean, bold, and austere. Considered too: a South Coast sequence reaches its crescendo in a double page spread; turning a page mimics the act of a pitching lip; a whole page is rendered black drawing the eye to the image opposite. White space is similarly used to contain and to compliment.

Each spread in Found At Sea evokes pleasant emotion. On multiple occasions I found myself thinking that despite twenty years of surfing I've never seen a wave do that. But of course I have. Anyone who's spent a length of time in the ocean has also seen such things - they just haven't seen them through Ray's eyes.

Found At Sea is self published and is available for purchase at raycollinsphoto.com

PS: It would be remiss of me not to mention there's an introduction by Kelly Slater. Ray was pretty friggen stoked about that.

Comments

rooftop's picture
rooftop's picture
rooftop Wednesday, 10 Dec 2014 at 12:15am

The guy can shoot, no doubt about that.

I prefer the pics with a human in it though. The waves without a person seem to lack a narrative. There's no movement.

What do you think? Check out http://raycollinsphoto.com/collections/showcase

Ray Collins's picture
Ray Collins's picture
Ray Collins Wednesday, 10 Dec 2014 at 12:31am

Thanks Rooftop, a good majority of those images in the link you shared are featured in the book! Thanks again for taking the time to have a look...

Greg B's picture
Greg B's picture
Greg B Wednesday, 10 Dec 2014 at 10:08pm

WOW! What a great Coffee Table book. I can't pick my favourite from either the book or the entire site. He captures the power of the ocean in such an awesome way, both with and without the human aspect.
I especially did like to see Eddie Blackwell still shreds. We went to high school together and I surfed with him for years. He always had my back. He is a great guy and deserves the accolades.
Well done Ray!

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Thursday, 4 Jun 2015 at 6:35pm

This morning I saw Ray Collins take the biggest set of the day at the local reef. A ledged out 8 footer, lip launching itself to the western suburbs, couple feet deep, and there was Ray mainlining the sucker.

I'd been in the surf with Ray before but only when he was shooting. What I saw today was straight up Extra Testicle shit and puts the photos in the above book into a new light. The positions he gets into, the sheer mutha-fuckin' recklessness. 

No longer will I poke fun at him 'cos of his top knot.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Monday, 15 Jun 2015 at 12:03pm

Photo of wave mentioned above:

11325483_1861114564112817_753142694_n.jpg

Photo @ben_shepherd

yocal's picture
yocal's picture
yocal Monday, 15 Jun 2015 at 12:38pm

that is a spacious cavern! any more in the sequence?

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Monday, 15 Jun 2015 at 12:58pm

Nah, not that I know of. He didn't make it though, got engulfed by the, erm, tube monster.

yocal's picture
yocal's picture
yocal Monday, 15 Jun 2015 at 3:18pm

If this is your local then you live in a very nice part of the world