It was the summer I turned thirteen, and we traveled to the East Coast to spend the season. I had never seen the ocean before. While it was actually the Bay of Fundy and not the open sea, it felt like the ocean to me. I'll never forget it. I was on the beach below a very tall cliff, and I saw a low-lying cloud—dense enough to seem like more than fog—bump up the cliffside and spill upwards and over the top. It was the most beautiful sight. I was astonished and thrilled. My love for the ocean began then and there. I knew that in the future, I would have to live near the sea.
I have traveled and lived in many places, but I have always stayed within a half-hour of a coast. I just can't live too far from the ocean.
The sea is my soul and my inspiration, my home. As a photographer, I try to capture the feelings that the sea evokes. When I take a photo, I'm not just documenting a particular coastline, but capturing the feeling that arises when I look through my lens.
I can visit the same beach every day, and it is always different, always special. The pre-dawn, the sunrise, the sunset, and twilight; the waves, the calm; high tide, low tide; stormy, foggy; winter, summer, fall, and spring. The color, light, lack of light, wind, peace, calm, vigor, power, beauty, energy, adventure, spirit, love, gratitude, delight, belonging, and sense of coming home are a few of the feelings and emotions I try to capture in my images.
The sea is where I came from and where I will return when my time here is done. In the meantime, I will continue photographing this elemental, infinite entity and try to do it justice.
"When I am happy, I go to the sea. When I am sad, I go to the sea. When I have a worry or a problem, or feel unwell, I go to the sea. When I want to be inspired, when I want to hear my inner soul, I go to the sea. And every time I return home refreshed, renewed and whole."
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I have been a photographer and stylist for over 30 years, living and traveling across the US from New York and Massachusetts to California, Oregon, and Washington. My journeys have also taken me to France, England, Scotland, and Ireland before finally returning home to Nova Scotia, Canada. My work has been featured in galleries and magazines like National Geographic Traveler and Canadian House and Home.
Early in my career, I worked at the National Film Board of Canada, where I did the animation for a documentary about Henri Cartier-Bresson. One of the highlights of my life was simply holding his prints in my hands. I have photographed children, wild and domesticated animals, buildings and interiors, historical places, and flowers.
Since returning home, my focus has shifted to studio work and the sea. I always come home to the sea.
-- Morgan Jane Miller
