Seaweed Studies

Seawall is a section of Maine's Acadia National Park, located in the town of Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island. The name derives from its function as a natural seawall, a granite bedrock and stone embankment that helps keep waves from the Gulf of Maine from encroaching on and eroding the island. It is common to find seaweed washed ashore, especially after a violent storm. I have photographed the park nearly every year since 1969, with seaweed being among my favorite subjects. In 2011, when the bulk of the present series was photographed, the amount of material along the shore was far more extensive than I had ever seen it. The sheer abundance of such exciting material provided the inspiration for this project. Diversity was achieved by making repeated visits to my favorite areas. The rising and falling tides tumbled the seaweed daily into new, often wildly contorted patterns, and photographing under varied conditions of tide, weather, and light, often until near darkness, provided further variety. As a self-imposed personal challenge I further chose to limit myself to making only vertical compositions.