Natalie Arriola Photography

By the Sea

I have always had a facination with the sea and with beach communities. This series is a growing collection of the quiet beauty I have found in my constant wanderings along the California coast. Not all of the photographs are of the beach or the water. They are often of surrounding landscapes or places. For me they are about a sense of silent longing. Looking out at the ocean I have always felt this longing, a longing for the unknown. It fills me with a vague sense of sadness. I suppose it is the feeling of the sublime: the great womb of earthly existence spread out before me, my mind wanting to comprehend it, but unable to, a beautiful sense of failure. Having encountered the sublime in nature, one begins to find it all around them, even in the most ordinary of objects.

Black and white, California coast photograph of a picnic bench near Santa Cruz. California coast photograph of a man walking down a foggy beach near steep cliffs. Bright yellow flowers bring color to a foggy California coast landscape. Minimalist, California coast landscape of fog drapping across a hillside. A young girl scoops up water with her orange pail on a vast beach in this California coast photograph. Stark, minimalist, California coast photograph of three seagulls in flight. Black and white California coast photograph of an empty laundry mat near Santa Cruz.
Green overgrowth crawls down a hillside onto a beach in this California coast landscape. Pelicans swoop across a cloudy blue sky in formation in this California coast photograph. In this California coast photograph a small group of trees are dwarfed by a vast darkened sky. Father and son surfers appear as tiny specks making their way across the sand in this California coast photograph. California coast photograph of succulents growing in the hot sand. California coast photograph of a vast expanse of barren beach under a darkly clouded sky. Stark black and white of a small house in an urban neighborhood near the California coast.