Rising Seas

As Oceans Warm, the World’s Kelp Forests Begin to Disappear

These photographic cyanotype images of seaweeds are attempts to visually and poetically, address the magnitude of what might disappear as a result of climate change. They are images of fragments of seaweed and reactions of ocean water created on-site at the ocean’s edge. The exposures are at the core of this photographic project: photosensitive paper is exposed to the ocean, to the sun, to the underwater plant and animal life that washes up on the beach. Rising Seas engages ethical seeing, visually registers ecology, and addresses the potentially irreversible damage that may occur if we do not change and reduce what is emitted into the atmosphere. Cyanotype is a photographic process that was invented in 1842. The prints are blue like the ocean, like the sky, and capture details and sometimes pigments from the different species of seaweed that come in contact with the photosensitive paper.