Photography and words by Dennis Scholz
Living by the sea is the ultimate dream for most of us, I guess.
Discovering a small village on South Africa’s Atlantic coast as a refuge from the European winter brought me one step closer to that ideal. It ticked almost every box: a consistent wave, glorious weather, and, above all, remarkable people.
Is this a love letter to South Africa? Probably not. To me, it’s more a reminder of how quiet, undistracted moments can unexpectedly ignite creativity.
As I paddled out one windy morning, spending way too much time waiting for a set (and getting snaked by way too many snobby but ripping kids), I noticed an unexpected amount of seaweed getting washed in with the swell. I started picking up a few of those pieces – beautiful colors, weird shapes, wild structures (is this how it feels to be on shrooms?).
Something triggered the loose idea to combine them with a couple of surf shots from the other day, so I stuffed a handful of what the Atlantic had left behind in my wetsuit and created these analogue collages.
Shot and gathered at the same Atlantic break, these works merge two records of a single place: the wave passing through it and the fragments it leaves behind.
Welcome to KELP!
