

A photograph at dusk on flat calm water, the last cold blue light almost gone and the sea and sky the same dark blue. She is sitting on the side of a small open wooden boat, over on the right of the frame, with her back to the camera and turned away from it, so we see her from behind: her shoulder blades, the long line of her back, her wet hair soaked flat and heavy down it, and her face only in profile beyond her far shoulder. One foot is flat on the planks inside the boat and her other leg is over the side with the foot in the water to the ankle. She is naked, just up out of the water and still streaming with it, her breathing not yet settled. A woven basket sits beside her against the planks. Both her hands are out of the water and dry, brought together in front of her and cupped one inside the other, and in the hollow of them lies one single pale grey pearl the size of a pea, catching the last of the light. Her head is turned down to it and her eyes are on the pearl. The camera is beside her in the boat, level with her shoulder and close. The light is all in the western sky ahead of her and it catches the wet line of her back, her cheekbone and the pearl and nothing else. Two tones: the dark blue of the water and sky, and the wet lit edge of her. Sharp on the pearl in her palms. Fine 35mm film grain. In the lower right corner, a small pencil signature: Ziggy