“I begged everyone to go to this installation that had just opened there outside of Marfa. (He’d started taking the class after quitting his film business job for his true passion, photography.) “I grew up going to Marfa, my parents were New Yorkers who transplanted to Dallas and they certainly think outside the box,” he said. On a family trip to Marfa in 2010, he decided on a whim to shoot some photos on the roadside in front of the now infamous store for a photography class project. Prior to that, the Dallas native’s most successful work was his “ Prada Marfa” series. When the light bulb went off, it really went off.” “I made that shot my desktop screensaver when I got home and a couple months later, I decided to create a series around this perspective. It was full of people and I felt so inspired by it so I shot it,” he said. “We got there really late on Friday night and on Saturday morning I pulled the curtains and we had a perfect bird’s eye view of the swimming pool down below. He first developed his signature aerial beach photography aesthetic after a fateful road trip to Las Vegas with a few friends back in 2011. While they flew at 100 miles per hour, the wind whipped in his face as he looked for his subjects and perfect geometry. To get these shots, Malin would go up in a helicopter with just his camera and get harnessed in so he could hang out the door and take pictures. “It is a place people go to find a bit of happiness and freedom, a moment alone.”įor the project, Malin trekked to six continents to capture more than 20 beaches, from Cape Town to Sydney, all shot from door-less helicopters. “No matter where you are from or what language you speak, the beach serves the same purpose for everyone,” said Malin. The wanderlust-inducing tome features work, both unseen and some of his most popular images, from his stunning aerial beach collection A la Plage. “ I want it to swoop someone away and take them somewhere great.” “It’s always about creating work that looks fabulous in an interior space and making sure that work is joyful,” said Malin of his aesthetic. For the occasion, the Surf Lodge in Montauk – the hamlet’s beaches featured in the tome – has plastered his work all over its rooms for the season. This month marks yet another big milestone for Malin with the release of his first monograph, titled Beaches, from Abrams Books. He’s amassed a massive fan base (with 169,000 followers and counting on Instagram) that includes celebs like Reese Witherspoon. These days, he’s quickly becoming an internationally recognized name in photography, known for his signature images featuring panoramic aerial views of the world’s most exotic beach locations. Less than ten years ago, Malin was hawking his work at the local flea market in Los Angeles for $65 a print. I try to get what is there and bring that to the table-I don’t like to change much in post.” “I hate when people ask if I use a drone or if I create some of these situations with Photoshop. “I think people don’t realize how much hard work goes into a single photograph,” said Malin, 30, who is based in Los Angeles. Compared to some of his other shoots, this could even be considered easy. For this particular shoot in French Polynesia (titled The Art of Living), which he and his team spent months preparing for, he’s shipped three airplane cargo shipment full of props ranging from large beach umbrellas to a standing coat rack.

with his two assistants and it’s their third shot of the day for a his “Follow Me” series, an ongoing collaboration project he’s been doing with Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts inspired by their various destinations around the globe, from Bhutan to Barcelona to Sydney. On a scorching Spring afternoon, the photographer Gray Malin stood on a mirrored raft, floating on Bora Bora’s crystalline waters next to a row of picturesque beach bungalows, trying to get the perfect image.

Gray malin