The sounds of the sea are the soundtrack to James Pevitt’s life – the crash of waves, the crunch of sand and the slap as surfboard hits salt water.
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In his past the sea has filled the Port Fairy photographer with the spirit of adventure, whether it’s catching a ride with a dubious Indonesian fisherman to visit a remote island break, or paddling out for the perfect shot of a whale frolicking off the beach in his hometown.
These days the ocean is a healer, a place of quiet escape where the waves help to drown out the constant pain of Pevitt’s multiple sclerosis, which has slowly been tightening its grip since it was first diagnosed more than a decade ago.
Each morning Pevitt navigates his scooter to Port Fairy’s East Beach, slowly easing his way out and into the shallows, the icy water helping to numb his symptoms, at least for a while.
“I love to feel the ocean, feel the salt,” Pevitt says.
“It gives me relief – for about half an hour the MS leaves me alone.
“For half an hour you feel better and then it slowly comes back, you just think ‘go away and leave me alone’.”
Strangely, Pevitt’s reaction to the initial diagnosis about 15 years ago was one of relief.
Alarming symptoms over two years before the cause – progressive MS – was nailed down had him fearing the worst.
“I was thinking am I going to live or die?” he says.
“When they said, you’ve got multiple sclerosis, at the time that was a relief, I thought it was better than dying.
“In hindsight, it’s a very difficult disease. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.
“But maybe I’d like people to have it for half a day to learn what it’s like, just to experience it.”
MS has affected Pevitt’s mobility and his speech and brings on bouts of crippling exhaustion. Pevitt talks about his condition like it’s a wild animal.
“It’s got a mind all of its own and it’s always thinking up ways to make life difficult for you,” he says with a laugh.
“It’s like I was too happy and bang, there it is.
“It hurts every day… I’m just slowly getting worse.”
But it has not dimmed Pevitt’s bright creativity and his love of photography, which has grown from a hobby to a profession, taking him around the world.
“I still want to be a photographer in my own right… not have everyone feeling sorry for me,” he says.
“Photography is my little escape, and a bit of writing as well.”
Growing up in Port Fairy, Pevitt left home as a teenager to begin an apprenticeship as a boilermaker in Geelong.
He travelled across Australia and further afield, often for the surf.
He lived in Dubai for two years while working as a personal trainer and his travels in the Middle East fueled his passion for photography.
Pevitt has since become renowned for his striking portraits that capture the story behind the images.
"It is a different way of life, you get to see how people in different countries live," he says.
"In the Western world we think everything we do is the best but there is more to the world than just us, people don't tend to travel out of their comfort zone to realise.
"The people in some of the countries I have been to have nothing but they don't want for anything either, their smiles and their happiness are very rewarding."
Back at home, Pevitt has documented Port Fairy’s changing face, and his new project hopes to create a photographic record of small towns and their inhabitants across the region.
“We’re all going to die, obviously, and it’s nice to have a record or an archive… before it’s gone,” he says.
It has similarities with his My Town Your Town project and exhibition, where his work capturing Port Fairy and its well-known identities hung alongside pieces by Chinese artist Fang Jun, whose subject was his home town of Yangzhou.
The exhibition was simultaneously held in Yangzhou, providing a whole new audience for Pevitt’s work from the other side of the globe.
He also has a passion for photographing music festivals. He captured the Port Fairy Folk Festival this year and continues to make the journey to photograph the Byron Bay Blues Festival.
Remarkably, Pevitt is still living at home, due largely to his own sheer determination.
“I’m having a lot more falls now. I fall and I fall hard and can’t get my arms out in time… the next minute you’re down there on the ground.
“I’ve had to dial 000 twice… it’s put me in hospital a few times.
“I’m not far out of being in a wheelchair, but I don’t want to sit at home and cry about my MS, I want to still take things on, I want to have a go, I don’t want to sit at home and go ‘woe is me’.”
The 52-year-old says much of his motivation comes from wanting to set a good example for his son Xavier, 8.
“He’s the most important thing,” Pevitt says. “I don’t want to give into it, you know… I don’t want it to take everything I enjoy from me.
“I still want to follow my dreams and follow my heart and maybe my son will appreciate that one day.”