It's Official!

Found at the Beach has officially been launched at lulu.com.

During the spring of 2006, we took a family vacation to visit some of our relatives whom we haven't seen in a long while. We traveled down to North Carolina and toured back up through Maryland and finally back up to Boston.

Every time we take one of these trips, I am fascinated by my children's reaction to the new input of ideas, scenes and situations. And, I reflect back to my own memories of my parents taking me and my brother on similar excursions.

Every time we take one of these trips (both when I was a child and now), we invariably end up at the shore at some point.

And pockets get filled with sand, shells and other little treasures.

This book was inspired by all of those trips. The work is an exploration of all of the wonderful bits and pieces that I collected.

It is also a journey back to my roots in photography. I started out doing table top sets in my living room and garage, following instructions I found in the old Peterson's Photographic Magazines, when I was a teenager. During my formal education at the Rochester Institute of Technology, I also spent most of my time playing the roll of a small god in a dark room, setting up still lifes and table top sets. It wasn't until my senior year that I realized the lessons I was learning with these images would apply to any other story telling image: light, composition, subject matter.

My boys and I took another trip recently, up to my parents' place on the coast of Maine. For some reason, we decided to do a winter trip to the beach at Reed State Park. And, once again, we came out with cool bits that are inspiring me to continue the series.

In any case, I hope the images tempt you and that you enjoy the book!

Matt