The Stillness Between
In The Stillness Between, Dennis Maida invites us to step into a visual meditation where symmetry, space, and silence speak louder than words. Shot from above, these rowboats become metaphors — not for motion, but for pause. Floating in perfect line or solitary pairings, each boat is tethered not only to its mooring but to the space around it, creating a profound stillness that echoes with introspection. The stark negative space renders each composition a study in restraint, balance, and poetic isolation.
This series explores how repetition, distance, and form can reveal emotional undercurrents — themes of connection, solitude, and the invisible threads that bind us even in stillness. Minimal yet rich in meaning, The Stillness Between is both a sculptural composition and a meditative reflection on presence.
In Quiet Formation
Four boats, aligned with grace, float as if guided by breath. Their placement is exact yet organic, like notes in a silent score — reminding us that order, when soft and intentional, can feel like a sense of peace.
Tethered by Balance
The boats lean toward one another, separated just enough to hold space — as if honoring boundaries in a shared stillness. It's a study in quiet cooperation, where presence needs no proximity.
Thread of Solitude
Here, the boats appear as a stitched seam across emptiness — a thread of thought, a whispered line of poetry adrift in black. Their spacing is both deliberate and delicate.
To Be Alone Together
Just two vessels, floating in the dark — an image of companionship defined not by closeness, but by mutual stillness. This piece speaks of relationships formed not in noise, but in the comfort of shared quiet.
Lines of Stillness
The culmination of the series — four rows of boats, vertically stacked, like verses in a minimalist hymn. Each row breathes. Each boat is a beat. Together, they compose a visual rhythm of containment and calm.
Where the Moon Once Touched
In Where the Moon Once Touched, Dennis Maida captures the intimate poetry of ocean waves under nightfall, transforming surf into abstract calligraphy. Shot under low light with careful minimalism, each frame isolates the moment a wave breaks — not in violence, but in whispered surrender. The absence of a visible horizon intensifies the focus on texture, tone, and flow, allowing each image to feel suspended outside of time.
There’s a celestial quality to the series — as though the ocean had once been kissed by the moon, and these waves still glow with her memory. The series speaks to the spaces between power and softness, motion and stillness, surface and depth. These images are not about the ocean we know by day, but the one we feel when everything else disappears — the one that pulls at the part of us still tethered to the tide.
When the Night Listens
Reflected light dances with the undertow — a soft riot beneath the hush.
The most luminous of the series — moonlight or ambient reflection flickers off the water beneath a crashing wave, glowing like breath in the dark.
What the Tide Remembers
A single wave caught mid-breath, curling like memory across the black.
The horizontal crest glows softly at the top, with delicate tendrils of foam reaching downward — as though time paused mid-pulse.
The Break
A peak rises — not as force, but as presence — whispering through foam.
This one features a distinctive rising wave, almost a pointed crest, lit like a ghostly silhouette moving through midnight waters.
Salt and Silence
The water spreads like ink, dissolving into a mist of lace and shadow.
This image has a wide spread of dense, intricate foam patterns — a visual texture that evokes erosion, memory, and stillness.
Where the Fireflies Wait
Dennis Maida’s Where the Fireflies Wait is a radiant meditation on wonder, stillness, and the passage of time. Through long exposures and instinctive timing, Maida captures the ephemeral magic of fireflies under the quiet pull of the cosmos. Each frame speaks to moments we often miss — not because they’re hidden, but because they require us to slow down and notice.
From winding boardwalks to fields beneath iron bridges, the series balances the architectural with the organic, light with shadow, silence with motion. The fireflies become symbols — of childhood, of fleeting joy, of moments suspended between memory and presence. This is a body of work that invites you not just to look, but to pause and feel: the hum of a summer night, the breath of wild grass, the pulse of stars above.
And the Fireflies Wink and Glow
Captured on a still, humid summer night along the Appalachian Trail Boardwalk in New Jersey, this image is the result of patience, persistence, and a little bit of discomfort. After two previous attempts, the conditions finally aligned—no wind, high humidity, and a sky fading gently into night. As the sun disappeared, thousands of fireflies emerged, dancing across the tall grass and lighting the path like flickering stars.
Despite the swarms of mosquitoes (a small price to pay), the moment was pure magic. This photograph serves as a quiet reminder of resilience—how even in the darkest conditions, beauty finds a way to shine.
Symphony of Lights
On a still summer night deep within the wetlands of New Jersey, the landscape came alive with a quiet brilliance. Thousands of fireflies emerged in unison, their soft glows echoing across the tall grasses and slow-moving creek like notes in a delicate symphony. Above, the sky recorded time in motion—starlight stretching gently across the heavens.
This image captures the rare harmony between earth and sky, motion and stillness, light and shadow. Symphony of Lights is a visual meditation on fleeting wonder—an invitation to pause and witness the poetry of nature when it plays without an audience.
Offered as a limited edition fine art print, this piece speaks to the collector who values not only composition and technique, but the emotional resonance of a moment suspended in light.
The Light Rememberd
Beneath the hush of a summer night, a still pond becomes both canvas and mirror—gently holding the glow of fireflies, the silhouette of trees, and the soft breath of moonlight. The Light Remembered is a meditation on stillness and memory, where fleeting sparks of life linger just long enough to be witnessed, then quietly fade into reflection.
Captured at the edge of a woodland pond during peak firefly season, this image invites the viewer into a moment both intimate and timeless. It speaks to the ephemeral beauty of summer—the way light moves through the dark, how nature records without keeping, and how we often remember not the brightness, but the feeling it left behind.
Available as a limited edition fine art print, this piece is meant for collectors who value atmosphere, emotional depth, and the quiet resonance of light preserved.
To Be Alive
To Be Alive is a vivid expression of what it means to exist in full awareness—when all elements of life, both natural and man-made, converge in a single, fleeting moment. Captured beneath a star-traced sky, with a train crossing the trestle and fireflies dancing in the foreground, this image layers time, movement, and light into a visual symphony.
Set against the backdrop of a quiet summer night, this photograph explores the tension between stillness and motion, solitude and connection, the eternal and the ephemeral. The fireflies flicker briefly yet with purpose; the train passes, but leaves its light behind; the stars trace the passage of time with patient precision. Each element speaks to the essence of being present—of noticing, feeling, and remembering that we are part of something beautifully complex.
Offered as a limited-edition fine art print, "To Be Alive" invites collectors to embrace the beauty found in small, transitory miracles and the quiet hum of existence itself.
Midnight Dance
Beneath the towering iron silhouette of a trestle bridge, nature performs in quiet defiance of gravity and time. Fireflies rise in graceful arcs, painting the night with fleeting trails of light, while above them, the stars stretch across the sky in slow, celestial rhythm. Together, they move in harmony—organic and cosmic, grounded and infinite.
Midnight Dance is a study in contrast and connection: between man-made steel and ephemeral flight, between permanence and the brief brilliance of life. This image invites the viewer to step into a moment where motion becomes memory and light becomes language—a scene that exists for only a breath, but lingers in the soul.
Available as a limited edition fine art print, Midnight Dance is for collectors who seek work that evokes wonder, stillness, and the exquisite tension between structure and spontaneity.
The Quiet Way Forward
The Quiet Way Forward invites the viewer to step into a moment of wonder along the Appalachian Trail boardwalk—where the only movement is the gentle flicker of fireflies and the silent sweep of stars overhead. The winding path, framed by tall grasses and fading light, leads into darkness not with fear, but with promise.
Captured on a breathless summer night, this photograph is a meditation on stillness, transition, and the light we carry with us. Each firefly leaves a glowing trace, a reminder that even the smallest spark can illuminate the way ahead. The stars above echo this quiet motion, drawing their own lines across the sky as time gently passes.
Offered as a limited edition fine art print, The Quiet Way Forward speaks to the collector who values introspection, serenity, and the layered beauty of light, time, and movement converging in nature’s silence.