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Stephanie Gilmore at P-Pass. This is one of those moments that just happen. The rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun burst through just as Steph took off….she pulled into a nice little barrel and as she came out the lip flared…The delight on her face is genuine, this is not her working the camera, she didn’t even know that I had this shot until later. Photo: Richard Kotch
I never really wanted to be a surf photographer. I always appreciated it as an art form, and I greatly admired the photographers’ skills but was never really drawn to it myself. I have always been fascinated with conflict photography. Gritty, hard-hitting images from the world’s war zones that would stop and shock you. I would naively romanticize on disappearing into Central America, the mountains of Afghanistan, or the streets of Northern Ireland before reappearing months later with rolls of gnarly black and white images that would be run on the front pages of the world’s biggest newspapers to shock society into action for peace.
It never turned out that way and I have ended up living a quite idyllic life drifting between the Maldives, Indo and Micronesia with my beautiful wife Amy. I think you could say that I got lucky.
See more of Richard Kotch’s work at richardkotchphotography.com and the image that won him the #SpringFwd Instagram contest.