This series was shot using a large format 4x5 camera, an object that felt heavy and monumental in my hands. I wanted a subject that mimicked that sense of weight and presence. The Philadelphia Naval Yard offered the perfect setting. I was drawn to the ships resting along the Delaware River—hulking pieces of metal delicately floating at the water’s edge.Working with the 4x5 slowed me down. Every decision had to be intentional, every frame precise. The ships offered a calm steadiness that matched this tactile process. Anchored in place and barely shifting with the tide, they allowed me to study them as if they were objects in a studio rather than industrial vessels, they became something closer to still lifes.