Surf Tribe

Surf Tribe — one of my favourite coffee table books, partly because I’ve loved surfing for as long as I can remember, and partly because the photographs are genuinely striking. Stephan Vanfleteren approaches surf culture less as sport and more as portraiture—capturing surfers in stark black and white, weathered and thoughtful and deeply tied to the ocean. The images feel cinematic and intimate at the same time; less about performance, more about obsession, solitude, and the particular kind of people who build their lives around waves. One of those rare books that manages to feel both beautifully heavy and quietly emotional.