Urangan Pier reaches most of a kilometer into Hervey Bay, on the Queensland coast, and it was never built for walking. Between 1913 and 1917 it was driven into the bay on more than a thousand turpentine logs cut from the island offshore, pushed out far enough to find water deep enough for ships in a bay with a large tide. For most of a century trains ran its length, carrying sugar and coal and timber out to be loaded. The last ship left in 1985. What stands there now has nothing left to carry but people.
I walked out at dusk, after the day's fishermen had packed up their gear, when the only sounds left were water against the pilings and my own steps on the boards.
Something happens to attention on a structure like this. There is nothing to decide. The way is already laid, the edges are marked, and the only available act is to keep walking. A mind that spends its days sorting options finds itself with nothing to sort, and it does what it rarely gets to do, which is stop managing and simply notice. The lamps. The color going out of the sky. The water on both sides.
Where Attention Leads is that walk. Not a destination worth reaching, but the particular quiet of following a path you do not have to choose.
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The pier gave that quiet by leaving nothing to choose but the next step. A room can be built to do something similar. I wrote about how in Designing Calm Spaces in a Visually Noisy World.
Photographed at Urangan Pier in Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia, looking out along the pier toward the open water of the bay, at dusk shortly after sunset. This is a single long exposure in low light. The subject is Urangan Pier, a timber pier built between 1913 and 1917 to move sugar, coal and timber from rail to ship, constructed from more than a thousand turpentine logs cut on Fraser Island, now K'gari, and driven far enough into the bay to reach ship-depth water against a large tidal range. Originally more than 1.1 kilometers long, it closed to commercial shipping in 1985 and now runs 868 meters after a section was removed and the rest preserved by public campaign. The frame holds the deck receding toward the lit end of the pier, white timber railings on both sides, open water beyond, under a violet dusk sky. Presented as a horizontal panorama, offered as an archival limited edition print from 12 by 36 inches to 30 by 90 inches on acrylic, metal, or archival paper.
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Each image is released in limited editions, with edition size set by presentation and scale, so the most substantial works remain the most rare.
Every work ships insured and arrives with a signed certificate of authenticity.
If a piece is damaged in transit, the choice of replacement is always yours, and your edition number stays with you.
Production time runs 2 to 3 weeks for metal, 3 to 4 weeks for acrylic and paper, and 5 to 6 weeks for framed work.
Collector Edition of 25 · Lumachrome TruLife Acrylic · Handcrafted Italian Frame
TruLife acrylic in a handcrafted Italian frame with a linen liner chosen for the image. Frame series, finish, and liner are settled with you after the order, and production begins from there. The frame and liner add about fourteen inches to the finished dimensions, worth allowing for when planning placement.
Signature Edition of 50 · Lumachrome TruLife Acrylic · Gallery Float Mount
Face-mounted to TruLife acrylic and floated approximately one inch from the wall, with no frame to mediate between the image and the room. UV-resistant, anti-reflective, and scratch-resistant, with a lifetime guarantee against fading.
Signature Edition of 50 · ChromaLuxe Metal Print · Gallery Float Mount
Color infused into the aluminum panel itself, floated from the wall on a concealed system. Where acrylic produces luminosity, metal produces clarity. Exceptional fade resistance with no glazing or coating required.
Fine Art Edition of 100 · Hahnemühle Baryta Fine Art Paper
Printed without acrylic, so light meets the paper surface directly. Highlights stay luminous, shadows keep their nuance, and the surface has a tactile quality the other presentations approach differently. The understated choice, and the traditional one.
Complimentary shipping within the continental United States. International collector shipping available upon request.
Still deciding
Designing for Stillness
A guide to choosing art for restorative spaces
How to tell whether an image will still hold you in a year, how scale changes what a photograph does in a room, and how to match a piece to the work a room actually performs. It cites the research it draws on, and it is equally clear about where that research stops. About ten minutes to read.