Jonathan  Gardner
PlateFirst Light from the AirMaui, Hawaii · 2019
Open edition

From the field


At first light the green cliffs of the Maui coast fall straight into the Pacific, the low sun raking across the ridges while surf breaks white on the rocks far below. This is the view from a helicopter with the doors off, out over the water. We had started before dawn to be in the air when the light arrived, and the early hour showed in the cold; with no doors between me and the drop, the wind came straight through the cabin. I was strapped in tight, leaning into the open frame as the island unrolled beneath us in folds of green and shadow. The sun stayed low enough to catch the haze lifting off the slopes and turn the whole coast gold for a few minutes. From the ground you never see the island like this, the cliffs and the sea stacked into a single frame.


Jonathan Gardner

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