‘I hope people wonder what the man is doing’: Carla Vermeend’s best phone picture

Every September, Carla Vermeend and her husband go on holiday to Terschelling island, in the Netherlands.

“It has lots of nature, right in the middle of the Wadden Sea, which is listed by Unesco as a world heritage site,” says Vermeend, a Dutch photographer. During their visit in 2014, the couple were walking by the sea together.

“The beaches on this part of the island are wide and quiet. Along the way, we found a big stick.” The pair carried it with them for a time, before coming across this boat, which had washed on to the shore.

“I immediately had the feeling that I had to take a photo of my husband rowing with the stick,” Vermeend says. “I like to photograph intuitively, from the heart.”

The image, which she took on an iPhone 4S, is unedited. “The weather and light were so good that it didn’t need any image processing,” she says. Reflecting on it a decade later, Vermeend highlights the surreal nature of the scene and the complementary colours, along with the authentic spontaneity of the moment.

“I hope people wonder what is going on here and ask, ‘What is that man doing?’ This photo makes me very happy, because it was a rare combination of circumstances. I often go to this place; I have never found this boat again.”