Anthony Friedkin: The Wave Portfolio

Exhibition Website

Jun 26 2016 - Oct 9 2016

Laguna Art Museum

Laguna Beach, CA

Renowned California photographer Anthony Friedkin made the twenty black-and-white photographs of his Wave Portfolio between 1977 and 2006, printing them in his own darkroom in Santa Monica. They show waves at Zuma Beach, Venice Beach, Hermosa Beach, La Jolla, Carmel, and Santa Monica.

Friedkin is a lifelong surfer and self-styled “disciple of the sea.” In the Wave Portfolio he brings to his images a sense of both the power of the waves and their beauty as abstract forms. “Waves are like liquid sculpture,” he has written. “They move with dynamic force and ethereal beauty . . . I do believe the ocean, with its jewel like waves, is where we came from; and when I’m in the water, I feel like I’m connecting to something so mighty and so primordial it’s amazing. All the mysteries of life and death, light and darkness, space and time, are to be found there. By photographing the ocean waves I hope to reveal their secrets within.”

Born in 1949, Anthony Friedkin was educated at UCLA and the Royal College of Art in London. In addition to his fine art photography, he has had a successful career photographing on assignment for magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone. He has also worked in Hollywood as a still photographer on movie sets.

Exhibition overview from the museum website

  • Photography
  • American
  • Contemporary
  • Maritime
  • Anthony Friedkin

Exhibition Venues & Dates