The sea has been Onne van der Wal's home for as long as he can remember. And like the sea, Onne is constantly restless. Born in the Netherlands and raised in a small fishing village just outside Cape Town, South Africa, Onne has made his own career as a photographer, sailor, ship‐repairer, and inveterate tinkerer. Whether it's fixing high‐performance racing yachts, meticulously devising his plan for making his next picture, or overhauling his own boats, he's constantly fine‐tuning.
In fact, his career and professional life have taken on some of the qualities of the ocean – immense, impressive, but also impossible to pin down. You're as likely to find him precariously steadying his camera on a sleek racing yacht battered by roaring winds as you are to find him sprawled in the belly of one of his own sailboats, using his deep knowledge of shipbuilding to lovingly restore an ailing 50‐year‐old craft.
We know Onne mainly as an award‐winning photographer and a longtime Canon Explorer of Light. He has traveled the world shooting (primarily) the world of sailing by boat, by helicopter, half‐submerged in water, and sometimes clinging to a rail with one hand and clicking away with the other. He has published a number of books; his wife, Tenley, runs a successful retail gallery selling his work; and he has been the subject of multiple documentary films.
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