School of Light

Hundreds of sardines move together beneath a wash of electric blue, turning a single school into something that feels almost like light itself.

School of Light was photographed on August 29, 2022, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of my longtime favorite places to visit. It was also my wedding anniversary, spent there on a family trip together.

The photograph was taken as you enter the Open Ocean exhibit, where a circular tank stretches overhead and sardines continuously sweep around it in a synchronized school.

The Open Ocean galleries have always carried a particular feeling for me. Deep blues fill the surrounding darkness, illuminated by the jellyfish and the enormous ocean tank. When the crowds thin and the room becomes quiet, there is something remarkably peaceful about simply standing there and watching life move through the water.

That morning gave us enough quiet to slow down, take it in, and capture some of that atmosphere.

Unlike some of the photographs that will accompany it in this series, School of Light was intentionally transformed after the photograph was taken. I pushed the colors into vivid blues, violets, and electric highlights, letting the movement of the sardines become something less documentary and more expressive.

The result is a photograph rooted in a real place and memory, but reimagined into something playful, luminous, and slightly surreal.

It is exactly the kind of image I would want hanging on my own wall.

Print Details

Fine Art Paper

Paper: Enhanced Matte Art Paper
Weight: 200gsm
Finish: Smooth matte
Sizes: 6.8 × 12 in / 17 × 30 cm and 14 × 24 in / 36 × 61 cm
Format: Unframed fine art landscape print
Production: Printed individually on demand

Canvas

Canvas: Stretched canvas
Size: 14 × 24 in / 36 × 61 cm
Wrap: Mirror Wrap
Frame: Unframed
Hanging hardware: Not included
Production: Printed and stretched individually on demand

Each print is produced individually when ordered using the full-resolution artwork prepared for this edition.