There are so many reasons that I love to photograph waves. Waves are wild and free. It is hard to predict what a wave is going to do next. A wave can express calmness and excitation simultaneously. The same wave can be both tranquil and violent. Waves are part of a giant pattern, but apart from that pattern: you never know when an individual wave will break in an unpredictable way.

Waves remind me of our lives. We are part of a great pattern roaring with the tide to a future that is unknown. Although part of the great pattern, like an individual wave each of us has our own pattern. We each respond in a unique way to the perturbations around us.

Day-to-day life can be predictable—with work commitments, school bus stops and all the little things of everyday life—and then wildly unpredictable, changed by exogenous events that might as well be the wind and tide.

Life is an adventure, sometimes gentle and calm, sometimes rushing with a roar of foam to crash against the shore. Whether in peak or trough, waves—and our lives—are always in motion. We can hope to enjoy the ride, but we can’t stop the waves or the passage and adventure of life itself.