If you’re at Nariman Point to check out the beautiful Arabian Sea sunset or for a stroll along Marine Drive, you will note these peculiar odd looking (‘alien’ looking has been used to describe them too) structures, thousands of them, line the coastline. Their peculiar geometrical shape, sheer size and gritty texture under the afternoon’s setting sun lend themselves to some experimentation in abstract and texture photography, I thought, and before long I was the oddball among many aiming my camera to the ground rather than the surrounding landscape :). Hope you enjoy, drop me a line if it worked?
Interlocked
Originally developed in 1950 by Laboratoire Dauphinois d’Hydraulique in Grenoble, France, tetrapods are four-legged concrete structures used as wave breakers. The beauty about its shape (and invention) is, it’s always ‘upright’ no matter how its placed, forming a stable structure regardless of any external forces acting on it, and lends itself to interlocking. One can erect barriers like walls as wave breakers, but the problem there is their ‘face’ is completely unyielding, which causes them to absorb the entire energy brought in by crashing waves. Massive waves can erode out its foundation over time and cause the entire structure to fail.
Capotain
Tetrapods, on the other hand, act as ‘porous’ barriers, they don’t absorb the entire energy of an incoming wave like a barrier wall. Instead, they allow water to flow round (around, above and under) it, rather than against it, hence attenuating and dissipating the wave energy into smaller parts across the tetrapods ‘wall’ structure. However, they do not last forever once installed as the forces of nature is great and unyielding, tetrapods are constantly monitored for wear, displacement and replaced accordingly.
True Grit
Random Alignment
All photos Fujifilm X-E2 with XF 55-200mm
