SHI SHI BEACH, NORTHWESTER WASHINGTON, DAY TO NIGHT™, 2022

Shi Shi Beach, Northwestern Washington, Day to Night™, 2022

An isolated strand in Olympic National Park stands as a testament to the urgent need to protect our land and water—an ethos the Makah people, whose ancestral territory this is, have upheld for centuries.
During treaty negotiations, their chief declared, “I want the sea. That is my country.”

This stretch of coastline is unlike any I’ve ever encountered—wild, untamed, and spellbinding. The tides arrive with force, swirling around sculpted sea stacks before retreating to reveal a hidden world of kelp and sea stars.

After a grueling three-hour, eight-mile roundtrip hike through relentless rain and mud, I positioned myself atop a jagged rock, where I spent over 21 hours photographing the intense rhythm of the tides. I captured the dramatic shifts in light, the ever-changing hues of the water, and the raw beauty of the landscape as waves crashed and receded. This breathtaking scene is juxtaposed with the quiet presence of a woman in contemplation—an intimate moment set against the power and vastness of the sea.

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