The Water Walker

The Water Walker. Photo by Kenneth Tanaka

Written by Kenneth Tanaka

One of photography's old chestnuts is that if you stare at something long enough you will eventually see something remarkable. Maybe it's not such an "old chestnut," after all.

I have been staring at Lake Michigan and, particularly, Chicago's Monroe Harbor for nearly thirty years, year in and year out. I never tire of looking at it. The scene is always changing, but never more so than in winter when freezing and precipitation often produce amazing scenes of abstract beauty.

I was photographing just such a scene one afternoon in late February (2014) as the harbor's surface was re-freezing following a brief thaw. Suddenly I saw something remarkable in my viewfinder: a man walking across the thin ice! Was this real? Where had he come from? That ice is only a couple of days old. Is he crazy? My jaw dropped and took my gut with it as I was certain I was seeing the final moments of someone's life. Falling into that water at this time of the year would certainly kill anyone within a few minutes, as it already had elsewhere along the Chicago lakefront during this winter. Nevertheless the man appeared to be walking completely nonchalantly, slightly under-dressed for the 10°F weather. Was he suicidal, I wondered?

At my first sight there was no evidence of any reaction to this stunt. There was nobody on shore, no emergency personnel as this fellow strolled across the harbor ice, apparently trying to reach the breakwater that forms the harbor. I was certain that each step would be his last, and that we would soon helplessly watch him sink into the icy water. As my wife was ready to call 911 we were relieved to hear sirens heading toward the harbor. At about this same time the "water walker" seemed to encounter ice that rattled his nerves enough to force a retreat. I captured this image as he turned and walked, again nonchalantly, back toward shore where a group of fire/rescue personnel and police officers anxiously awaited him.

I'm happy to report that the man safely returned to shore, apparently perfectly dry, and greeted his prospective rescuers with what appeared from my distant vantage to be a "Gee, what's the fuss?" attitude. Police and fire personnel spoke with him for a few minutes and then loaded him into a waiting ambulance, even though he seemed in fine condition.

And that's the last I heard of this stunt. No news coverage whatsoever.

In my years watching the lake and harbor I have never seen anyone try such a stunt. And of course I certainly would never encourage anyone to try it. But it sure made for a wonderful, rather surreal late afternoon image, didn't it?

I realize that there are likely to be a few readers/viewers who may be suspicious that I've created the "Water Walker" with Photoshop. For them I add the following image showing the fellow as he reached shore.

One last note. A good friend remarked that the image looks equally fascinating when inverted, since it does not show a horizon and the walker is so cleanly reflected. I agree!

Ken

UPDATE 10 p.m. Saturday: Since Mike posted this piece my wife found a kind of news item concerning the incident. Believe me, this fellow required no 'rescue,' luckily for everyone. In answer to another inquiry, I can assure everyone that relatively little post-processing was performed on the image. Just enough to make it work nicely in a print. And, finally, someone asked privately about the camera. I used a Fujifilm X-E2 with the XF 55–200mm lens for this image. —Ken

©2014 by Kenneth Tanaka, all rights reserved

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Edward Taylor: "Actually, this incident was reported on the national news. I saw this on the evening news (I think NBC). They showed him walking back to shore and being 'rescued.'"

David Paterson: "An otherwise good friend of mine tells me that all my pictures look better upside-down."

Carl Schmidt: "I've read this blog for years but never felt compelled to write anything until now. It's a beautiful picture and one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I assume there's minimal or no post processing. It's the real thing."

Comments

[Joseph Reeves]

It is a good image that can alter our perceptions and perhaps challenge our fears. I was walking under the ice yesterday here in Juneau. The police didn't send anyone after me.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/umnak/12991556935/in/photostream/

[Paul]

My guess is that he was driven to the nearest er for a psych evaluation.

[robert quiet photographer]

Cool!
robert

[MartinB]

I was out to take photos on New Years day several years ago when I came across 2 young men on the thin ice in the lagoon. They were jumping up and down, as hard as they could, trying to break the ice. A Wiley Coyote moment. Did they even have an idea of their next step if their plan to break the ice worked.
As much as I would like to be a good Samaritan, I knew I would stop at putting my life, or others, at risk to rescue them. Call for help, yes. Find a long stick and push it toward them, sure. Go out on the ice....

[Robert Hudyma]

A visual anagram.

Here is a natural landscape with a tiny death-defying mirrored human.

I would buy this image if it was offered in a print sale.

I am not sure if it looks better up-side up or downside-up, but you can choose how you would like to display it.

Both ways seem to work.

I would be interested to know if the image would be as strong without the tiny man --probably not.

[Amin Sabet]

Incredible shot. I don't know if this is much different than that guy who walks on tightropes from one skyscraper to another except that one fellow is celebrated by the public, and the other is whisked off to a psych ward.

[David]

I know this lake well from 2 sides..Chicago and Michigan. As a lifelong user and multi seasonal user of Lake Michigan I have to say that this person was either a rookie, or, has some serious mental problems.

Lake Michigan freezes, sorta, sometimes. Close to shore in a cold winter..Like this one, you can go on the ice after a decent period of cold..decent meaning weeks and weeks of prolonged cold. but, not very far out.

The recent thaw that Ken mentioned opened up the lake to water again..This re-freeze, which I watched from the shores of the Michigan side, did not represent a situation where it was safe to be doing what this guy was doing. He's seriously lucky to be alive ..probably a super skinny dude.

That ice was precarious. It's noteworthy that the reopening of the lake away from shore happened almost overnight..a testament to how thick, or, actually, thin the ice gets out away from shore..even after months of below freezing weather here, it was in a relative blink of an eye that water reappeared.

Lake Michigan is not a little pond style lake..it moves, heaves, breathes and it takes the ice with it..cracking it layering it at will.

Dude was nuts.

Nice shot Ken..VERY strange picture

[john babineau]

I recently visited the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fl. Always thought of him as a genius/pioneer of self-promotion, probably due to the many times I found him, not his art, in the pages of the of Life magazine when I was a youngster. But strongly suggest you revisit his art, not him, especially his use of the miniature figure in his surreal landscapes. I think you may have magically/realistically outdone him!

[Michael Perini]

Ken,
This picture and it's 'back-story' really work for me.
A lovely picture by any standard, but for me, it is also instructive in two other ways; composition wise I am reminded of the artist's device of turning the canvas upside down to check composition---your works so well I almost prefer it. But also your history of knowing the place, and returning to it photographically again and again, accords deeply with what I refer to as 'Grateful and Persistent Looking'. The returning, is an act of respect for the place, and the looking is not so much looking for pictures, but looking for what wonders the place will choose to reveal today. (It doesn't matter if it is out your window or a distant place). Sometimes, like people, places reveal themselves only over time and present us with pictures 'whole cloth', on their own schedule, --like a gift. All we have to do is be Ready, and be Grateful.
You were obviously both. Very Nice.
Michael