Matt Giraud
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    A shell fragment thwarts the gravity of the receding tide and streaks like a comet up the beach.

     | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Suprematism comes to Odell Lake

    Sheets of ice fractured on Odell Lake, Oregon | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Sheets of ice breaking apart on Odell Lake

    Sheets of ice breaking apart on Odell Lake, Oregon | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    An actual battened hatch, Key West

    Battened hatch, Key West Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Refracted light and image in the Sanibel River

    Sanibel River refractions, SCCF, Sanibel Island Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Refracted light and image in the Sanibel River

    Sanibel River refractions, SCCF, Sanibel Island Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    Refracted light and image in the Sanibel River

    Sanibel River refractions, SCCF, Sanibel Island Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
  •    

    Refracted light and image in the Sanibel River

    Sanibel River refractions, SCCF, Sanibel Island Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Hand-set rivets dance up the underside of the cupola crowning Palais Garnier.

    Underside of the cupola of Palais Garnier Opéra, Paris, France | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    A placid pond near Tenryu-ji Temple in Kyoto.

    A placid pond in Kyoto, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Steps down into oblivion in the hhistoric Kurashiki canal, Japan

    Steps down into oblivion in a canal running through the Bikan Historical Quarter, Kurashiki, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Stone in balance with bamboo in Hagi, Japan.

    Stone in balance with bamboo at the historic Kikuya House in Hagi, Japan. | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    A sheathed tree in the samurai quarter, Matsue, Japan

    Sheathed tree in the samurai quarter, Matsue, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Kelp tendril on a beach at Point Reyes, California

    Kelp tendril on a beach at Point Reyes, California | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    The St Louis Arch soars up into the sky

    St Louis Arch soaring into the sky | © Matt Giraud Photography
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    Eerie sodium glow over a building in Laguna

    Eerie sodium glow over a building in Laguna | © Matt Giraud Photography
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  • Sometimes it’s less about moving forward than resisting the pull to retreat. A shell fragment thwarts the gravity of the receding tide and streaks like a comet up the beach.
     | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Suprematism comes to Odell Lake as sheets of ice fracture into geometrical forms.
    Sheets of ice fractured on Odell Lake, Oregon | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • At the water’s edge, the edge is frayed, a blast of frosted glass frozen in time, shattering out into the dark. The wind sings: walk with me, don’t be afraid, out upon the stones I’ve laid – I’ll show you where the real lake lies. But those are lies a moment tells, the lie I tell with frozen time until the lake sighs, and ripples liquify the edge.
    Sheets of ice breaking apart on Odell Lake, Oregon | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • In Key West, the phrase ‘batten down the hatches’ is more than a figure of speech: from August through September, the specter of hurricane season looms over this tiny, exposed shoal 100 miles out into the Straits, casting a shadow that throws everything out of balance.
    Battened hatch, Key West Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Light and image bend, refract and reflect in the stillness of the Sanibel River
    Sanibel River refractions, SCCF, Sanibel Island Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Light and image bend, refract and reflect in the stillness of the Sanibel River
    Sanibel River refractions, SCCF, Sanibel Island Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Light and image bend, refract and reflect in the stillness of the Sanibel River
    Sanibel River refractions, SCCF, Sanibel Island Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Light and image bend, refract and reflect in the stillness of the Sanibel River
    Sanibel River refractions, SCCF, Sanibel Island Florida | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • One of the most humbling things to realize about the Palais is that every last flourish and ornament and joint was done by hand. The ironwork skeleton of the building is no exception: Because they're hand cast, drilled and set, rivets dance up a beam supporting the cupola crowning Palais Garnier.
    Underside of the cupola of Palais Garnier Opéra, Paris, France | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • A placid pond near Tenryu-ji Temple in Kyoto. In Japan, even nature feels like it's been composed.
    A placid pond in Kyoto, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • On a cold, leaden morning in Kurashiki, the willows bent over the canal, softly rustling amongst themselves. So I bent over the canal with them.

    “These steps,” one said, gloomily swinging her boughs back and forth in distaste, “they lead to oblivion.”

    “A path is a promise, but this one can only break it,” said another.

    “‘But long it could not be,” swayed a third, “Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull’d the poor wretch To a muddy death.’”

    But what if someone is at the last step with a boat, I asked.

    The water tugged absently against the stones, its ancient nemesis.

    “Let’s hope there are enough boats,” they said.
    Steps down into oblivion in a canal running through the Bikan Historical Quarter, Kurashiki, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Stone in balance with bamboo at the historic Kikuya House in Hagi, Japan.
    Stone in balance with bamboo at the historic Kikuya House in Hagi, Japan. | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • For a designer like me, Japan brought revelations at every turn. This tiny little detail — a sheathed tree in the Samurai Quarter of Matsue — is a good example of why. Some of it is simply about composition. Strong verticals that span and unite two contrasting forms, the bark and its stylization, the bamboo. The perpendicular counterpoint of the neatly wrapped, black rope, both visual anchor and stage. The pointed contrast of tones, lacquer black against late-harvest gold against loamy brown, each sharpening and articulating its neighbor to build a composition of remarkable visual precision and clarity.

    But even more revelatory, it’s the design philosophy that seems interwoven through so much in Japan: an audacious yet somehow respectful stylization of nature. Here, it’s bamboo, proposed as a clean, orderly, yet still organic interpretation of the bark grain it reaches toward.

    Once I started noticing things like this, I saw them everywhere, not only in highly curated compositions like gardens, but in everyday touches like this simple way to protect a tree’s base in a tiny coastal town.
    Sheathed tree in the samurai quarter, Matsue, Japan | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Like a whisp of smoke from a burnt offering, a stipe of beached kelp twists back toward the sea at Point Reyes, California.
    Kelp tendril on a beach at Point Reyes, California | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • Like Icarus, the St Louis Arch soars into the sky, kisses it, and falls to earth.
    St Louis Arch soaring into the sky | © Matt Giraud Photography
  • An eerie sodium glow lights a troubled sky over a building complex in Laguna, California
    Eerie sodium glow over a building in Laguna | © Matt Giraud Photography
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