Along a Shadowed Shore (ongoing)
Along A Shadowed Shore responds to the coastal ecosystems of South Florida through experimental photographic processes and sustained engagement with a short stretch of shoreline near my home. Organized into interconnected chapters: Nocturnal Tracing, Sargassum, Dark Index, and Site, each approach this place through distinct photographic strategies. Accumulation, environmental change, and the tension between systems of observation and a place that continually exceeds them emerge throughout the project.
Seeing an increase in sargassum piled on the beach near my home prompted the work. While essential to marine ecosystems offshore, in excess it can smother seagrass and coral reefs, release harmful gases as it decomposes onshore, and obstruct sea turtle hatchlings from reaching the ocean. In recent years, these blooms have become a visible barometer of planetary change. In response, I create photograms at the water's edge, allowing traces of the ocean to register directly onto light-sensitive paper. I then make a tea from washed ashore seaweed to develop the images and use saltwater to stabilize them. (Nocturnal Tracing). This process led me to bring the seaweed into the darkroom, where I magnify fragments to reveal its intricate structures and gas-filled berries (Sargassum).
This engagement with place continues through photographs of the human-marked shoreline (Site) and plants growing within the coastal ecotone (Dark Index). The grid, which appears throughout, functions as both a provisional tool for observation and a framework for imagining uncertain futures. Together these chapters form a material portrait of a coastal ecology in flux.