FOREWORD TO The Art Of Yachting

Nice, France

Growing up in small town Scotland, Robin Baird and I attended the same school from the age of 5 years old. During high school we shared the same class for six years and after graduating, went our separate ways. Two decades would pass until we next bumped into each other, this time on the cobbled streets of Nice, France. At that chance meeting, under a clear sky, instead of a handshake we shared an embrace. 

I was aware that Robin had been successfully pursuing a career in photography. Friends of mine told of inspirational visits to his various exhibitions in Barcelona and beyond. I always knew he was gifted and, sat beside him in art class, time and again I would watch him display an effortlessly discerning eye for the sublime. When I was privileged to look upon his work as an adult I was not surprised but struck by the beauty and signature insight inherent within his shots.

It is an honour for me to write this foreword for his latest work, The Art Of Yachting. A beautiful showcase for a talented artist, TAOY is a clever and composed photographic exploration of some of humanity’s most supremely bold and vaunted architectural achievements – Superyachts. Having spent almost all of my working life on and around these remarkable and resounding machines, seeing Robin’s unique take on his subject matter is as refreshing as it is compelling.

Robin Baird somehow manages to reconcile the inescapably audacious presence of these creations with the subtle art inherent in each of their uniquely engineered designs. His images capture a suggestion of their enigmatically involute auras and invite the viewer to appreciate the mind-bending geometrical essence of each.  

 TAOY displays many a concinnity of remarkable and vibrant tableau: ribbons of light are caught within countless shades of azure sea and blue sky; and this merely the stage for its true subjects, the yachts themselves - which in the images, as in life itself, dominate the eye line and demand attention.

Robin Baird’s TAOY presents its subjects on the water through extraordinary photographs and an elucidating, entertaining eye. The images are gorgeous and by tracking the concomitant relationship between the subjects and their surroundings using by turn close up detail and a big-picture view, TAOY makes an instantly valuable addition to any collection, leaving the viewer with a cogent impression of undefinable wonder and, in my case, a resolve to seek more.

Captain Robbie Fox

Master Motor Yacht Maraya

MCA Master of Yachts <3000gt