Behind the Waterfront

A look into the life and scenery of a shipyard on the Namibian coast.

I spent 4 months working on an ocean conservation ship in Namibia. during my free time at port, I would document the shipyard and its workers.

As a photographer, every once in a while you will stumble upon a place that excites you visually and gives you endless inspiration. I have been fortunate enough to find myself in places like this quite often, but some stand out more than others, and this shipyard was one of them. I could spend hours walking around the fog-covered concrete landscape and explore boats left to decay in the salty air, wondering how they ended up there. I would try to lift the heavy whale bones left on the docks. I would talk to the dock workers, who somehow always seemed happy. The hum of the machinery is soft and familiar, soft enough to hear the crashing waves and seabirds surrounding you. The seawater and the thick, salty air etch their gritty signature onto all they come into contact with. In the harbor, not a single thing escapes the passage of time. It manifests in the rusting poles, the rotting mooring lines, the barnacle-covered hulls, and the scattered whale bones left to dry on a dock.