ABOUT
My boat, Bright Pleiades, at anchor on Mattawoman Creek off the Potomac River.
Living aboard a boat on the Chesapeake Bay has been my magic carpet and my island. Anchored in fog, kayaking up a wending creek, aboard fishing vessels—the water’s-eye view shapes my work on the Bay. Transitions—where water meets banks and shores, when one season gives way to the next—present an ever-shifting palette. Being a science writer adds more dimensions to perceiving the landscape.
This photographic journey has embraced watermen (as the Chesapeake’s fishermen are known), traditional fishing methods, old seafood houses, boats, marshes, and more. Workboat captains invite me aboard while oystering, crabbing and rockfishing, as do scientists on research cruises.
Beyond the Chesapeake, I photograph waterscapes—wetlands and shores—in South Carolina, Wisconsin and Maine. Cruises through the minimalist landscape of Antarctica—ocean, ice, rock, sky—have extended my photographic realm there.
Beyond our familiar world of color, black-and-white photography has a lure of its own, distilling purity of design, gradations of light and texture, and a subject’s essence. I also see more abstractly now, exploring, for instance, the wonder of Rorschach rustscapes in a marine construction yard.
I enjoy showing my work and hearing others’ takes, especially on more abstract pictures. It’s a way to communicate and to learn more about my own journey. My deep hope is that the images—bringing the unnoticed to view—will enhance conservation of these fragile, beloved waterscapes.
