Erich Hartmann | Magnum Photos Tide coming in. Pemaquid Point, Maine, USA. 1960.
“Throughout recorded time all living creatures have been impelled to make ‘Great Journeys.’ Men and women, singly and in groups, have emba
(...) rked on long journeys of adventure, discovery, exploration. Whole nations or peoples, usually under a powerful leader, have set forth on long treks armed for conquest to establish trade routes, to colonize, to enlarge empires, to assert or reclaim religious dominion. Equally restless are the denizens of the world’s oceans and rivers: Turtles, salmon, eels find their way over many miles from the depths of the sea to faraway rivers. Creatures as tiny as bees travel many miles in swarms toward a new food source. Even the seemingly fragile and beautiful monarch butterfly makes a journey of hundreds of miles.
The great seas that surround us make their daily tidal journeys and even more particularly, some of the largest waves make their own great journeys. Special instruments at numerous spots around the world have detected ocean swells that have travelled as far as 6000 miles. Here, on Maine’s Pemaquid cliffs, the giant wave dashing itself into sea spray may have just ended a Great Journey of its own.”
- Ruth Bains Hartmann, widow of Erich Hartmann © Erich Hartmann | Magnum Photos
