Nature lover and photographer Ben McCormick lives for the unexpected. His view of the world is that each day is an adventure — a chance to discover something new — if you take the time to look for it.
“Nature got me into photography,” McCormick said. “I was weaned on National Geographic — stared at the photos of animals in those magazines for hours.”
McCormick’s love for the ocean and interest in nature began at a very young age. “I grew up on a 22-foot catboat. My dad was a sailor, and in the summers, we basically lived on that boat, sailing the Northeast coast. I’d lie down and fall asleep listening to the ‘clap, clap, clap’ of scallops,” McCormick shared.
In high school, McCormick became interested in African studies, awed by the variety of incredible wildlife. When he was 17, he got the opportunity to travel to Central Africa, then to South Africa on an exchange program. He spent what savings he had on his first camera. “The wildlife in Africa was amazing — surpassing anything I’d ever imagined,” McCormick said.
In 1985, during one of these adventures, McCormick took a photo of a group of zebras. Today, that photo holds a place of honor on a shelf in his gallery, Under the Surface in Menemsha. “I bought the camera right before I left, so I didn’t really know how to use it. The photo of the zebras is overexposed, but what came out was something unexpected and interesting,” he said.
McCormick’s original goal was to become a travel writer, and after graduating with a degree in English literature, he set out for Asia, hoping to write a travelogue. After exploring Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand, McCormick found work as a crewman on a boat, and sailed across the Indian Ocean. Shockingly, the ship caught fire and sank, along with McCormick’s camera, numerous rolls of film, and his 350-page manuscript.
“That incident shook me for a long time. This was before laptops, and those 350 pages were handwritten,” McCormick said. “I tried to recapture it a bit in letters I wrote about my experiences, but it just wasn’t the same.” Though the loss of his manuscript may have stalled his dream of becoming a writer, it didn’t dissuade him from continuing to explore and take photos.
“I started out shooting fish, and sort of flubbed my way through while I learned,” he said. McCormick worked as a commercial fisherman for a while, but in the late ’90s he made the decision to become a full-time artist, focusing his lens on nature, adventure, and the unexpected. Though he has become more technically savvy than he was when he shot the zebras, he still finds that the unpredictable — even if technically imperfect — is what excites him. “Though a reasonable amount of technicality is important, of course, I’m more interested in expressing artistic meaning,” McCormick said.
McCormick’s subject matter stems from what inspires him about the Island. Walking the beaches with his wife, he collects everything from shells to rocks to crab claws. “Every time I walk the beach, there is something new to discover. Nature is endless. Even the rocks on the shore can drastically change from day to day,” McCormick said. “It’s fascinating that even the things I’ve seen my whole life can become new if looked at in a different way. Recently, my wife and I were talking about what I call ‘sand pennies.’ My wife said she always knew them as sun shells, but they’re also known as jingle shells. Then one day, I was talking to a man in the gallery who referred to them as ghost shells.” Sure enough, when held up to the light, an image in the center of the shell eerily resembles a ghost’s face. “It’s like a whole new discovery,” McCormick said.
Though McCormick’s interest in nature hasn’t changed, his shooting process has shifted and grown over the years. Digital photography has made exploring with a camera a bit easier, and a lot less expensive. “I literally take thousands of pictures, and sometimes only find one I want to keep,” McCormick said. In the past, the cost of film and developing would have made viewing a thousand photos a pricey venture: “I shot on film up to the bitter end, but it became harder to get film on the Island and to process it, so I eventually turned to digital.”
In McCormick’s gallery, the walls are filled with large, framed photos of sea glass, beach rocks, shells, fish, and more. His bold, powerful, and colorful photos are shot underwater to accentuate color. “One main reason I decided to work with this method is for the countless times my wife and I brought home beautiful rocks, shells, sea glass … after finding them in their glory when wet along the edge of the beaches. Once dried on the counter, they were always less than impactful. Essentially, I want to give that thrill of the find effect to like-minded collectors through my photos.”
Though McCormick does shoot while out on walks, he also brings objects back to his studio and places them in a tank of water to photograph, strategically lighting them to sharpen the colors and to avoid glare. “Photography is all about light. I have numerous lights set up around the tank at different angles. Often I use a light table as well, to light something from behind, like sea glass. If it isn’t backlit, you wouldn’t be able to see the glowing translucency of the glass.”
Part of what makes McCormick’s photos so stunning is the way he arranges the items he’s shooting. They aren’t posed in a contrived way, but arranged sculpturally. “I’ve slipped into a macro grouping phase,” McCormick said. “Having a collection of shells in various sizes, colors, and shapes, say, creates a more interesting image than if there were just one shell. It just wouldn’t have the same impact.”
Not all of McCormick’s work is shot in the same style, however. One photo looks like an impressionistic abstract painting. In reality, it’s a close-up of fish scales. In another photo, a grouping of gray trees looks like an etching, and in yet another photo, an arrangement of driftwood looks like a sculpture of birds. “A photograph can assimilate into other art forms,” McCormick said. “And that’s really fun to play around with.”
Creating art is a form of playing and exploring, and often one form of creative expression triggers another — even one lost at sea.
When asked what’s next for McCormick, he shared that he’d like to find a way to pair pictures with poetry to compound their meaning. “I’ve always loved poetry. My grandmother started the Academy of American Poets, and I think poetry has always been in my subconscious,” McCormick said. Though he may not be regularly traveling the world and writing about his experiences, McCormick finds adventure every day, exploring the magic of the Island.
Under the Surface Gallery, befittingly once a swordfish cooler, is located at 16 Basin Road in Menemsha. Hours are from 10:30 am to 5 pm virtually every day during the summer season (roughly May-October). Email ben@benjaminmccormick.com for more information.