A Thousand Small Summers

About this piece

Mike Gedj frames a busy shoreline from above, tracing the diagonal meeting of pale sand and turquoise sea. Repeated blue umbrellas, scattered beachgoers and delicate bands of breaking surf give the sunlit scene a rhythmic, almost patterned structure.

The story

From above, I watched the beach gather into small arrangements: a circle beneath an umbrella, chairs turned toward the water, someone standing alone in the shallows. Blue repeated itself everywhere, linking the shade on the sand to the open sea. I framed the shoreline so the crowded beach and the broad water could share the picture. Each small wave drew a white line between them, then let it disappear.