Ships Dreaming of Seas

Patient, over-patient, is the captain of my ship.
The wind blows, and restless are the sails;
Even the rudder begs direction;
Yet quietly my captain awaits my silence.
And these, my mariners, who have heard the choir of the greater sea, they too have heard me patiently.
Now they shall wait no longer.
I am ready.

                        Gibran “The Prophet”

The sea, the ocean, their waves and the mercurial horizon have found their way to every artist’s heart and imagination. Ships have surrendered themselves to the vastness and mercy of tides and winds. Ports have given respite to these vessels and mariners but the call of the sea has always won.

A ship cannot call a port home.

… For years, my “ship” has been a simple 3 meter long kayak. It has explored seas, the shores of an ocean and numerous lakes. At water-level, I have seen cities look less attractive, trees taller and proud, and the flight of a heron most majestic. I do not solely rely on my memory, tough, as I always carry a camera with me.

That day, I decided to bring a 1938 Soviet FED camera with me into the port of Baltimore. It is a 35mm camera with a lot of history and small enough to fit in the pocket of my vest.  My goal on that afternoon was to come as close as possible to large ships and take photos from a water-level perspective.

Military Ships. These two, seen from below, are awe inspiring. They are like floating villages. The symmetry of how the two ships were anchored was enhanced by my being in a tiny kayak.

What we do not see. A mile away, I found myself in a ship repair area. I had never seen the underside of these large ships. The feeling of a “hanging ship” was a strange feeling – a ship out of water is a sad sight.

Here is my approach to the ship:

And how sad it looked to me…

Shipyard in Cape Town, South Africa. I was not in a kayak that day, yet even looking from above, a hanging ship looked as sad in South Africa as it did in Baltimore!

Happy Ship, Lake Cuomo, Italy. This one, a restaurant and bar upon the blue waters of the lake, gives a very different feeling from the above ones. It is surrounded by the snow capped Italian Alps, and is most inviting.

… … While Gibran’s Prophet knew that his mariners had heard the choir of the seas, I wanted to focus on the ships and "catch" them in various states of their being. And I am sure that neither my quiet approach in a kayak in Baltimore, nor a telephoto lens in South Africa or Italy disturbed their quiet times. 

September 24, 2016

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016