Anthony Friedkin’s photography spans many topics, subjects, and themes, but nothing is as close to his heart as The Surfing Essay, a life work and almost a religious vow. “Breaking Wave,” shot off the Venice Pier during a big northwest swell, is the stuff that surfers dream about: the shapely, smooth face burnished by a light offshore wind; the lip hurling outward, forming a coveted barrel, that euphoric little womb of water. A lifelong surfer, Anthony presents the wave as a sort of blank canvas onto which we the viewer pick a line, and most likely tuck into that tube.

“To me, it all starts with the energy of the waves,” says Anthony. “The spiritual implications of waves, in terms of symbolizing our universe, is to me, as a surfer, a deeper connection to the beauty of them. And I think shooting them in black and white gets to the moral of the story about the energy and the beauty and the power of waves, and how unique and how individualistic they are.”