Waiting for My Set

“Waiting for My Set” by Andrew Kuykendall captures a fleeting Californian moment where everyday grit meets timeless longing. In the foreground, an old pickup truck stands weathered but proud, its lines evoking a sense of Americana resilience. Behind it, a lone surfer pauses at the water’s edge, board in hand, watching the restless ocean gather itself for the next swell.

Shot on a rough day along the California coast, the image distills the tension between anticipation and release—the stillness of waiting against the wild unpredictability of the sea. Kuykendall’s eye for raw beauty transforms the scene into more than documentation; it becomes a meditation on patience, ritual, and the pursuit of fleeting perfection.

Printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, the work gains a tactile depth: colors appear both vibrant and unvarnished, amplifying the rugged textures of metal, salt, and sky. The result is a print that feels at once vivid and elemental, a portrait of California surf culture stripped back to its essentials.