RED TIDE

The red tide which plagued Southwest Florida in the summer of 2018 was indescribable. Rot, stench, flies, choking noxious air. The beach death-drenched. Each wave struggling to get to shore, loaded down, suffocated under the weight of lost life, as if the Gulf itself had drowned.

Red tide is a toxic algae bloom. It was a sometime part of the natural system, historically, but like so many things, human activity has significantly exacerbated it. Fertilizer run-off and global warming feed it.

These images sit outside of our artistic practice. And they are not documentary either. Let them motivate all of us to find shared solutions to the pollution problem that’s ruining our natural home. When we set our minds to doing it, we can accomplish anything. Good lives aren’t incompatible with the natural system. The best living would combine the advantages of our ingenuity with the genius of the great, magical system to which we belong.