In the spring, I accompanied my daughter’s kindergarten class to the MACM, and was lucky enough to see the exhibit featuring Sophie Calle’s exhibition Pour la dernière et pour la première fois (For the Last and First Time). While a group of 5-6 year olds don’t leave much time for savouring, I found it to be one of the most moving exhibitions I have ever seen.  It was Voir la mer that inspired the series I am sharing with you today. 

Up until this past July, neither of my girls had any memory of the ocean. Our last beach vacation had been when my older daughter was one, and I was pregnant with my youngest, so  knew I wanted to capture their experience.  What I did not realize was how difficult it would be to capture this, these first moments, and hours, through tears, and through chest-bursting joy. 

We had just driven two days, had dropped off our bags at our condo, and immediately walked back out, down the walkway, to the beach.

What I will remember:

The way our girls’ faces changed at their first ocean view

Their unbelievable squeals of delight upon feeling the warm ocean water 

Eloïse, momentarily  pausing in the excitement of it all, and asking me to remind her, how many days would we be able to be here, again? 

Ben’s face, witnessing it all

I may not be in these images, but I am in these photographs. You can find me in the brief instants I chose to freeze in time.