Forward guntub of the ship, President Coolidge, Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu, 1986

“The minute a ship crosses that final barrier between air and surface, as it settles into the sea, it loses the heat and the pain and the blood and the smell, and becomes a sculpture. And the sea surrounds it and supports it. And yet, when you photograph it, it still has that historical human content to it. If I can do a picture of a shipwreck with voices and ghosts in it, then I feel I’m successful.”