Mike Berman Photographs at Center for Wooden Boats

Another nice post from Three Sheets NW by Deborah Bach, this one on PTSA member Mike Berman’s photography show at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle.

To Michael Berman, a trip across the Atlantic was not just an opportunity to cross an ocean, but a chance to capture in photos a force that has mesmerized people for centuries.

A marine photographer who lives in Port Ludlow with his wife, Berman sailed from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands to St. Lucia in the eastern Caribbean in 2007. An exhibit of Berman’s photographs from that crossing opens tomorrow, Sept. 16 at The Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, where Berman will give a talk and slide show from 7 to 10 p.m.

Berman, who grew up in Los Angeles and has been sailing and racing since his teens, was invited by friends to join them on their 54-foot Hylas sailboat for the last leg of the 2007 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC).

Initially he wanted to go simply as a sailor, but soon started thinking about the challenge of conveying the allure of the ocean in photographs. He realized it wouldn’t be easy. He’s taken photographs for nautical art collectors, boat builders, marine equipment manufacturers and boating magazines. But the ocean is a capricious subject.

“Sailors are attracted to the beauty of the ocean, but it’s hard to photograph,” Berman says. “A lot of non-sailors will say, ‘Isn’t it boring? It doesn’t change.’

“I started wondering, how can I communicate the attraction and the beauty of the ocean that I see?”

You can read the entire post here