Tom Sandberg Narvik, Norway, 1953-2014

This image by Tom Sandberg is at once both incredibly sentimental and a formal meditation of black-and-white photography. The baby is rubbing her eye with her small hand and face buried in the blanket on the beach. This moment of reprieve from the bright sun and sandy environment is relatable to one anyone who has been to the beach. The angle of the photograph places the child’s head almost in the same position as one of the rocks in the distance and at once the child’s head becomes a part of the landscape—one with the sand and ocean. The ambiguous blending of forms from the texture of the blanket to the sand, the solid form of the child’s head, and the soft tones of the skin and sky is only achievable through Sandberg’s precise handling of the photographic medium.