Yankee

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

Winter-Surfing-1

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.

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