The Shape of Leisure

About this piece

Mike Gedj frames the shoreline as broad bands of turquoise water, pale sand, and coastal greenery, joined by a diagonal ribbon of white surf. Scattered swimmers and striped umbrellas give the expansive scene an intimate human scale.

The story

From above, I watched the beach arrange itself into small islands of activity. A striped umbrella marked one gathering, a towel another; farther out, swimmers appeared as tiny interruptions in the blue. I framed the sweep of sand without the horizon, letting the water fill the foreground. What held my attention was the space between people—the stretches of open beach and sea that allowed each small scene to remain its own.