16 Knots: Hamburg. March 2024.

Hamburg, Germany.

3/4/2024. Work has begun in earnest on my newest series: 16 Knots, an exploration of global maritime shipping.  To embark on this project, I started with Hamburg and Rotterdam, two of Europe’s busiest ports and hubs of international trade.

Hamburg proved to be a very agreeable place indeed.  In addition to the spectacular and easily accessible port, the city is also a charming and pleasant place to be, one I will be very eagar to visit again.

I arrived in Hamburg on a late Monday afternoon and eventually made my way down to the waterfront at dusk for my first introduction.  On a sandy beach on the banks of the Elbe River I was greeted with overcast skies with a touch of fog, and a clear view of the Port of Hamburg.  Within minutes, the waterfront revealed itself to be a very lively place and soon I was scrambling to keep my camera gear out of the waves that were sweeping up and down the sandy beach.  Having flown into Amsterdam only the day before, I was still quite tired from the red-eye flight and the numerous trains it took to get here, but the scene before me was a breath of fresh air that left me energized.  A very fine introduction.

A Misty Evergreen. September, 2020.

Boston, Massachusetts.

9/3/2020. An exercise in patience. Weeks of waiting for the right conditions finally yielded the opportunity I’d been waiting for. Every week, one of these enormous vessels departs Qingdao, China, crosses the Pacific and arrives in Boston five weeks later, after making several stops along the route. The Ever Leading (pictured) was built in Geoje, South Korea and has been roaming the world’s oceans since 2012. The sea has always fascinated me and I have long associated ships with adventure and the unknown.