The cameraless photographs in Swell express the fascinating and ethereal beauty of tidal passage from beneath ocean waves to the shoreline. The delicate translucency and unusual structures have been enlarged to reveal a myriad of forms and textures. Intricate seaweed fragments, sand and shells, with creatures that might occupy rockpools or seaweed forests provide an experience of our near-shore oceans. These natural specimens used were collected from beaches in the northern and eastern suburbs of Sydney.

Compositions emerge from the blackest depths or float in the light of a watery surface but are held in motion. Captured in the darkroom by floating seaweeds in water and exposed in direct contact with the surface of photographic film. The photographs provide an immersive, emotional and aesthetic response to the seaside and ocean life inspired by a childhood nostalgia for beach-combing, fascination with historic photographic processes and early botanical practices.