Against the Wind by Stephan Tobias

'We were young and strong, we were runnin' 

Against the wind.'

Bob Seger

Regardless of where you live these days, there's a feeling of running against the wind.  This is especially true for individuals, who unlike those Bob Seger's wrote about, aren't so young, and who aren't so strong.

Images are often described as the capturing of moments, a split second of time, never repeated again.  Many of the most powerful  moments are those that capture energy, motion, movement and even sound.  Although we're viewing these images digitally, and although they were taken thousands of miles away, along the Baltic Sea in Saint Petersburg Russia, you can not only see, but feel and hear the power of the wind.

For me, the sheets of plastic in particular, trigger memories of being out on windy, stormy days.  We've all experienced trying to put on that rain coat, chasing a runaway grocery bag, or listening to a flapping tent as we huddle up for safety and shelter inside.  As much energy as can be seen as felt, there's also an incredible stillness captured, that split second captured, like the brief eye of hurricane, before it crescendos once again.

These moment of both motion and stillness were captured by artist Stephan Tobias last summer. Stephan sent them on last month, and for me, they are a  beautiful metaphor of all we're experiencing at his particular current moment.  As crazy as it may be at time, there's also a stillness, an often eerie stillness, that have cascaded over so many locations that are normally buzzing with energy and movement.

FH viewers are familiar with the Stephan Tobias' work, both in front of, and behind the lens. I have been featuring Stephan's work for close to six year now, and have been fortunate to feature many of his incredible images of both stillness and motion.  Stephan has also shared images shot in locations, like these along The Gulf of Finland which extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg where this series was shot.

As you can see, Stephan is not battling the wind alone.  Some of you might recognize model Artem, (Артём) whose images, and whose story, I introduced last year. (Serendipity)  In the piece, Artem shared discovering and being inspired by Stephan's work, and reaching for support and guidance about his desire to give nude modeling a try.  The result, was Artem's first nude shoot with photographer Igor Kuryukin, which I featured in the first piece.

In the beginning,  Stephan's support and mentoring occurred only on-line.  As you can see from these images however, Stephen and Artem, eventually connected in the flesh.  To read chapter 2 of the story, focused on how Artem met Stephan, check out PAGE 2 HERE:

Артём on Flickr

Артём on Instagram

Stephen Tobias

Stephen Tobias on Flickr