With a newborn in a sling and a polystyrene tray of fish and chips in his hands, Fred MacGregor came across this scene at the end of North Yorkshire’s Saltburn Pier. The photographer was on holiday with his wife and children, so had “neither the space in the bag, nor the headspace” for his usual DSLR.
“The photographer Chase Jarvis once said, ‘The best camera is the one you have with you’ and it was an iPhone 7 I had with me that day,” MacGregor says. “Sometimes shooting on a phone can have its limitations, but on this occasion it performed just fine. I only needed a few minor edits, like a bit of brightening, to really bring out the central line of the wave.”
Originally from London, MacGregor has long admired the quality of light in the north of England, finding it more “clear, low and brilliant” than in the capital. The way it hit the cliffs and the water appealed to his photographic eye, as did the relatively unusual angle of the shot.
“A lot of surf photographs are taken from the beach, facing out to sea, or along the barrel of the wave. With this, I was able to show the context, and position this kinetic figure in its wider environment,” MacGregor says.
“The twee, colourful beach huts stand in contrast to the bleak industrial landscape to the right, but both are part of the truth,” he says. “A picture that tells the truth can be tricky to find these days.”
