California Here To Here, Chapter II
California grace
California Here To Here by Morgan Maassen, Chapter II
When traveling turns into something you do all the time the perception of the journey itself could get repetitive, like everything else you do on a daily basis. I'm constantly trying to visit new places and meet new people. I am incredibly passionate about travel and in order to keep enjoying it you need to spice it up, which is why I'm always striving for new adventures to places I have not yet discovered. While I look for beauty in faraway and exotic locations, California is one that has emotional and sentimental value to me.
The grace I find in California is what I grew up with on my hiking trips, boating adventures, early morning surfs and late evening bonfires, a beauty I will love and cherish forever. I was seven when I first stepped foot on a surfboard, from that moment I was absolutely addicted.
When I was eighteen, my father leant me the family camera and I started snapping photos to accompany the short films I was making. I started combining my passion of surfing with my newfound love of photography, by simply taking my camera with me every time I’d go surfing. As a self-taught photographer is has been the most important to apply my own voice and personality throughout my work. How I see the world, what interests me and what I want to share with the world in both narrative and aesthetic terms.
Curiosity is what drives me. I explore with and through my camera. While I’m out there in the water, bodysurfing with a heavy aluminium camera that you both have to protect and to use to capture the waves, I still feel accomplished even if I am not surfing. But trust me – I always make time for myself to catch a few waves.
Every trip I take, rain or shine, means the world to me.
Some experiences peak at swimming with whales, sleeping under the stars, or surfing perfect waves, while others result in testing the limits of my personal limits. I’ve nearly drowned in Australia, dodged Stone fish in Reunion island, and been circled by sharks in the Bahamas. I live for these experiences, for I grow and mature with every moment of joy and struggle thrown at me. They light the fire inside of me to keep going, to keep pursuing not the act of taking a perfect photograph, but the euphoria that comes with earning it.
Words and photography. Morgan Maassen
This story inspired by a previously published initiative. Watch the short film here.
Traveller/s
Morgan Maassen
Photographer and Surfer
Morgan is a young photographer who has climbed the ranks of professional surf photographers faster than any of his contemporaries. Growing up in Santa Barbara, he became casually acquainted with Bobby Martinez, Tom Curren, and Dane Reynolds through the proximity of shared surf sessions at and around Rincon. Morgans is on constant travel around the world.
@morganmaassen
