On an unusually sunny morning at Ocean Beach on the west side of San Francisco, photographer Sachi Cunningham is putting on her wetsuit, and getting her camera gear ready. A sign in the parking lot warns: “Danger: People have drowned. Enter at your own risk.’
Some photographers train by running with rocks on the bottom of the ocean. Cunningham has been lifting weights since she was 10 and swam competitively for 20 years.
Huge waves, deadly rip currents, and sharks have not stopped Cunningham, one of the first women shooting big waves in a male-dominated profession. I talked with her before she swam out with João De Macedo, a Portuguese big wave surfer.
“If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s really big and dangerous surf,” Cunningham says.
“This is the entrance into the bay … so the currents are really, really strong, ” De Macedo explains.
You won’t find turtles, coral or fish in Cunningham’s images — she’s part of a genre of ocean photography that only shoots waves and people who ride them. For more images
By Adriana Cargill for NPR
