The Winter Sea | Photographs by Gabe Bornstein

Photographer Gabe Bornstein rides his board into New England’s coldest waters to capture images most people would never see.

By Mel Allen

Dec 03 2020

The Winter Sea

Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein

If on a winter day in Maine you find yourself enjoying the sunrise or sunset at Old Orchard Beach, or maybe at Pine Point in nearby Scarborough, you may see a trim man in a wetsuit paddling a surfboard into the churning waters. His name is Gabe Bornstein. He is 28, and he is a surfer, but he’s not seeking the thrill of the waves. He is looking for the moment when the glow from the horizon bathes the coldest water in New England. He is there to create images from a perspective that few have had. While there are many photographers who take pictures underwater, Bornstein paddles with a camera strapped to his board, hoping to capture the ocean and sky the way a seabird floating on a wave might see them.

“Whether shooting or surfing,” says Gabe Bornstein, “every time you shift your gaze even by just a few degrees, a new world seems to open itself up to you.”
*Photo Credit : Troy R. Bennett/BDN*

The water will be in the 30s, low 40s at best. Though encased in thick neoprene, after half an hour Bornstein is closer to freezing than not. “Once you start losing your fingers, you have maybe 10 minutes left,” he says. His icy fingers struggle to adjust the aperture, to press the shutter button. He heads into the teeth of the surf—he calls it “wearing the wave”—knowing he must get his shot in the instant before he is tossed about like driftwood.

He swims out early and late because light is most dramatic then, but also because of the solitude. The boats are still; birds are aloft. He is part of the sea rising and falling. This is when “the ocean’s raw energy comes out,” he says. He wants to find what he calls “the creamy, almost milky water.”

Bornstein grew up by the southern Maine ocean. He knows that the tides and currents that can drag you out to sea don’t care if you’re an artist. If you don’t pay attention, you can be in deep trouble in these winter waters. But after he climbs out, soaks in heat at home, and sees the images he’s brought back, he dreams of what he may find the next time he paddles alone out there in the cold.

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To see more of Gabe Bornstein’s work, go to gabrielreuben.com.

The Winter Sea: Photographs by Gabe Bornstein

Winter light casts a rosy glow above a breaking wave.
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

Paddling against the Nonesuch River’s current only to be pulled back toward the ocean felt “like a bit of a game,” Bornstein says, “but I was able to steady my camera just long enough to capture *Miss Amelia* for what would be the first of many times.”
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

Bornstein captured this moonrise on a March night while wading in stomach-high water at Old Orchard Beach. “Although I had never attempted to shoot the moon from the water before, I knew if everything lined up, it could be really special.”
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

“In between sets of waves, the sunrise was just beginning to peek over the horizon. I was hoping to get the sun itself, but instead I dipped into the shadow of an oncoming wave, resulting in a beautifully backlit and tranquil scene.”
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

“The air was in the single digits on this day, yet to me personally this image feels warm, thanks to the blurred landscape and colors”—an aesthetic created by “dragging” the shutter (using a longer shutter speed) and panning while taking the shot.
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

This image was shot with a macro lens, which can be tricky to use because of its limited depth of field—“a challenge that’s magnified when you’re trying to control the dials on the camera through 5mm of neoprene.”
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

“Brooding storm clouds and blustery winds created a really dramatic energy this day,” Bornstein recalls. “It was almost like being in a real-life Winslow Homer painting.”
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

While photographing fellow surfer Jason McMichael on a brisk winter afternoon off the coast of Kennebunk, Maine, Bornstein “swam under more white water than I would have liked to, but this image made it worthwhile.”
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

“I’ve spent countless hours chasing moonrises over at the Pine Point Fisherman’s Co-op, and go home cold and empty-handed more often than not,” Bornstein admits. (Note: The tattered name of the boat in the foreground reads *Persistence*.)
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

Heavy water breaks over a submerged rocky ledge off the coast of Maine.
*Photo Credit : Gabe Bornstein*

Mel Allen

Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.

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