I’ve never met Ryan Pernofski. I’ve never even spoken to him aside from the brief email exchange that led to me doing this review. But having read his debut book Salt & Light, having stared transfixed at the startling imagery it contains and read the numerous little anecdotes and observations that accompany those images, I feel like I know him on some level. He is a young man with a deep and genuine love not just for the ocean, not just for the strange and wordless beauty of breaking waves, not just for the light that plays on the surface of such phenomenon, but for those elusive moments when all of these elements combine to create images that bore their way into your consciousness—and this book is a product of that love.

Shot and compiled over three years on Ryan’s (and my own) native South Coast, Salt & Light contrasts the desolate seascapes and violent wave formations of the area with moments of surreal beauty and sublime stillness, capturing in the process the myriad moods of a coastline defined by contrasts, where calm picturesque bays give way to rugged exposed headlands and waves break on both soft sand beaches and terrifyingly shallow rocks. With a penchant for neon-pastels and an almost complete lack of human subjects, Ryan has managed to suffuse the book with a mood of solitude and wonder, where you can almost hear the soft ripple of your flippers breaking the surface, the sharp crack of a wave throwing out over shallow reef, the sound of a bird flying past. The images make you feel like you’re there—and when it comes to the medium of photography, you can’t ask much more of it than that.

Adding to the appeal of the photos are the words that accompany them. While a lot of photo journals and coffee table books contain beautiful images of their chosen subjects, where they can lose your interest is in their lack of narrative and all too serious captions. Throughout Salt & Light Ryan has provided a light, endearing account of his development as a photographer over the three years it took to create the book, complete with brief anecdotes about nearly drowning, tips about what he’s learnt while pursuing his craft, and short insightful musings on the art of photography. It gives the book a personal and relatable feel that helps provide context for what you’re seeing and encourages you to keep turning the page. It also contains moments of revelation, as you learn that many of the book’s images (including the one that adorns the cover), were shot on an iPhone. On top of this, the design is modern and refined, with an attention to detail in the way it’s been pieced together that ensures each photo is as engaging as the last.

Available in book stores around the country and online at Amazon and saltandlightbook.com, Salt & Light is a book that appeals to that part of yourself you sometimes find staring out to sea, with the salt air in your nostrils and the water washing over your feet, admiring the ocean for all the beauty that it holds.