The magnificent journey of light and waves.

Coledale, East Coast Australia

I stand here, washed in salty ocean spray, feeling the raw power of nature with every gust of wind. Waves with windblown, backlit manes surge at me like mythical beasts.

Storms had raged through the night, leaving a wild and untamed sea crashing tirelessly against the jagged rocky shoreline.

Now, escaping the night, the dawn sunlight streaks past grey clouds and washes the atmosphere with a soft haze.

As waves crash and shatter, I find inspiration in the raw, untamed beauty of nature’s grand canvas.

Each explosion of water sends a cascade of shimmering droplets into the air, catching the light like a thousand tiny diamonds in a staccato symphony of chaos and beauty.

See more seascapes here

Paul Foley

I am an Australian fine-art photographer based in Newcastle, New South Wales, and have been making photographs for more than fifty years, including 35 years as a professional commercial photographer.

I think of much of my personal work simply as finding pictures—looking for relationships between light and shadow, lines and shapes, landscape and humanity. My photographs range across landscape, the sea, abstraction and the human form, with recurring interests in time, place and memory.

I remain a generalist photographer. Some ideas develop into collections that I return to over many years; others appear unexpectedly and result in a single photograph.

My work has been recognised in Australian and international photography awards and exhibited in Australia and overseas. Including as a finalist in the Galah Regional Photography Prize (2025) and National Photographic Portrait Prize (2011), selected to hang in several 'Mosman 2088' exhibitions and included in group exhibitions in Glasgow, Tokyo, Newcastle and China. I have also had individual and collaborative exhibitions in Sydney and Newcastle.

I live in Newcastle, Australia.

https://www.paulfoley.com.au
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Newcastle Club Foundation Art Prize 2025

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night surf