Far-Flung: The Vast Waves of El Niño

Luke Shadbolt spent a year searching for the mightiest, most extreme, most violent waves possible. In this new edition of Far-Flung, Eva Clifford speaks to the daredevil photographer.

In early 2016, photographer Luke Shadbolt spent a month in a remote, undisclosed location, capturing the vast storm swells generated by an active El Niño event. From the shoreline—and sometimes from the ocean itself—Luke experienced the culmination of the elements as 50ft waves soared and crashed around him, bouncing off the sheer cliffs. His aim: to find the mightiest, most extreme and violent waves possible. 

“I consider my relationship with the ocean as slightly obsessive,” writes Luke in the introduction to his photobook Maelstrom. “I’ve always felt most inspired surrounded by nature, but the ocean has a presence that is particularly intoxicating with its endless variables, especially during large swells. It almost seems as if the collective energy of the elements: wind, water, light and their subsequent accumulation at the coastline, is a categorical attempt at drawing us back to the primordial source.”

Growing up on the central coast of New South Wales, Australia, Luke has spent the majority of his life in or next to the ocean and, like many Australians (85% of whom live within 50km of the coast), the surf runs in his blood.

After studying graphic design at university, Luke landed a job as an art director and photo editor in the surfing industry, where he stayed for several years, but he couldn’t escape the gnawing desire to pick up the camera himself.

In 2009 Luke managed to save enough for a digital camera and underwater housing setup, and started shooting surfing and bodyboarding, “chasing every swell possible up and down the east coast of Australia”. For Luke, the drawcard was always to be able to combine being in the ocean with a creative outlet.

Following almost a decade capturing “perfect” waves for publications and companies, he decided to go in the opposite direction, and focus instead on the chaos of nature – or “beautiful chaos” as Luke puts it.

“The main idea behind [Maelstrom] is duality – witnessing an act of both creation and destruction. The most interesting aspect of the ocean for me was always the wild, stormy days and all the environmental factors that align to create such an experience,” Luke tells whynow. “The aim was to find the most chaotic and powerful display of the ocean I could find to showcase that. In my travels I’d come across a few potential locations; after that it was a waiting game to allow for the right combination of swell and wind, tide and light.”

On his first trip, Luke was asked by local surfers not to name the location. “It’s pretty common in surf culture, keeping the names and locations of breaks a secret so that the area doesn’t become inundated, a rule I’ve always respected and abided by,” he says. “I think that ambiguousness adds to the story; it’s not so much a matter of where it is, it’s more of a representation of the ocean as a whole.”

Photographing the ocean might sound an easy enough task, but capturing the right image at the right time requires patience and quick instincts. It involves immersing yourself fully in the environment and pinpointing those limited windows of times when all the elements align.

“The process of shooting these images required lengthy hours out in the elements, ready for a number of variables,” says Luke. “From torrential rain squalls, tide fluctuations, to blistering wind and heat.” 

Yet despite spending a month there on his initial visit, Luke says that only on 2-3 of those days did he produce the sorts of images he’d envisioned. “I ventured back several times over the years if the forecast looked promising; all up it has been over a 5-year period so far. I think it is something I’ll keep returning to and refining, and experimenting with different techniques. The great thing is every time offers something different, no two swells are the same and the lighting is always changing. It’s a blessing and a curse really, having only a handful of days per year that will produce what I am looking for. It keeps it interesting but can also be frustrating.”

Luke photographs from the shore, from the sea, and occasionally from the air if he’s in a helicopter or using a drone. “If I’m in the water, I’ll either swim, sit on a board or sometimes I’ll shoot from a boat,” he says. “I have an underwater housing made by a company called Aquatech that keeps my equipment dry. If I have a preference, it would be shooting from the ocean, just swimming around with a camera in hand.”

Luke can recall one instance when fortuitous timing enabled him to make an image where all the elements collided at precisely the right moment. The image he refers to is ‘Maelstrom 1’, in which we see the raging swell of the ocean forming an elliptical wall of surf. In Luke’s close crop, all sense of scale seems to dissolve – the rock in the forefront could be the size of a bucket, or it could be the size of a bus. Either way, the power of the ocean is clearly visible.

“Shooting these types of swells, I’ll spend all day out there to maximise the time with the best conditions,” says Luke. “I had just sat down for lunch a few metres away from my camera, when I saw what looked like one of the bigger sets of the day coming through. I had to drop my food, jump over a few boulders to where I had my camera still set up and quickly frame up a shot and start firing. I don’t even remember having time to focus properly. There’s a lot of anticipation mixed with luck really.”

The sheer force of nature Luke captures in this series brings to mind the aesthetic concept of the sublime, developed by Edmund Burke in the mid-eighteenth century. He described this as: “The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature is astonishment, and astonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror.” And it is exactly that conflicting emotion we are made to feel when looking at these images, a constant flux between awe and unease.

Through his work, Luke hopes that his photographs will inspire a renewed appreciation for the environment – particularly since around 56% of the world’s population now reside in cities. “I can only speak from experience, but the two years I spent in New York were a lot different to the 35 years I’ve lived near the ocean amongst the trees,” Luke says. “Especially in modern life, I feel like there is a disconnect from nature and what it provides.”

In light of the recent IPCC report—which largely confirmed what we already know about climate change (rising temperatures, drought, massive species loss, more extreme weather events)—the prognosis for Earth isn’t looking too good. Luke’s images serve to drive home the reality that nature is a force more dominant than we like to think. But beneath the brutal power of the ocean, lies the essential fact that humankind cannot survive without it.

“Climate change is already altering our present and will undeniably shape our future,” says Luke. “Whilst it might seem overwhelming at times, I believe that small, everyday actions can absolutely make a difference on a global scale. Acknowledging our position within the natural world rather than above it, is key to finding the equilibrium required to heal the planet.”

lukeshadbolt.com

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