Eye To Eye

Eye to Eye was photographed during an encounter with a juvenile grey whale in Baja California in 2026.

The young whale approached close to the surface, giving me the opportunity to photograph the encounter both above and below the water at the same time.

Beneath the surface, its eye remained clearly visible, looking out through the blue while the rest of the animal disappeared into the water below.

That single detail completely changed the photograph for me.

Grey whales are enormous animals, but at close range it was the eye, rather than their size, that made the encounter feel so personal.

For a brief moment, there was a sense of being aware of one another on either side of the surface.

Eye to Eye is a photograph about connection, a fleeting meeting between two very different worlds, separated by only a thin line of water.