Despite Rule, BP Used Dispersant, Panel Finds by Matthew Wald

Countering BP's PR: Deception by Dispersal; The Great Gulf Oil Tragedy by Rocky Kistner

Check it out.

A component I want to explore with this project is a shift of perspective and a struggle to make out what the photo is showing the viewer.

All of the shots are human scale, but with a lack of size reference there's confusion as to the size of what's there.



Below is oil in a tidal pool



Below is the same pool



Below is the size reference of the pool, my foot is in a white bootie at the bottom of the frame



Below is a patch of oiled sand on a Waveland beach, I made the photo standing and shooting down





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the 2 photos below were made standing and shooting at the horizon






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the photos below were made shooting from a plane that was flying to the site of the spill. The best perspective on the size of these is in the first photo where you can see a shrimping boat at the upper right corner.











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Firing Line by Mattathias Schwartz

Check out this article by Matt Schwartz in the NYT today... Firing Line by Mattathias Schwartz

Matt and I are planning on working together on a piece based around the upcoming Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. He recently spent some time in Southern Louisiana and recommended that I get in touch with Buddy Compton, who turned out to be a great guy and an incredible source of information.

I'm really looking forward to working with him on some something.

It's premature to begin laying out the photos in book format but it's helping me figure out the structure of the project on the whole and which photos might be the keystones.

Full bleed on right hand side photo is likely
Right hand side photo with small black border is possible
No text or page numbers is definite
Photo on the right hand and left hand page is possible, but very unlikely
Photo on the right hand page and blank page on the corresponding left hand page is very likely
If left blank, left hand page will be black matte paper

I'm thinking about paper vellum between the blank page and the photo although that's unlikely
I'm also thinking about extending the size of the book length wise to allow for a black margin on the left hand side of the photo on the right hand page.

Another option is accordion fold out.

I'm thinking how many I'm going to make... most likely 250 to 300 total.

In addition to the more traditional book format, I also might make a tabloid publication akin to one published in Madrid, a newspaper with pull out images.

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A bunch of these shots would have benefited from the use of a faster camera. And a bunch of these shots would have benefited from the use of a large format camera. Realistically, in terms of getting the most out of the day the camera I used is fine. There's 2 or 3 portraits I'd like to go back and redo with a large format camera and I'd love to go back to the oyster fields with a bigger camera.

On The Beach

3 days left to help fund... if you can please help me out! I want to go back to Southern Louisiana one more time and shoot at the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival in Morgan City. It's happening Labor Day week. I need an additional 1500 to be able to do it.


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From the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival website...

Please join us for our 75th annual festival to be held Sept. 2 - 6, 2010, in picturesque downtown Morgan City, Louisiana. This is an event that will prove that oil and water really do mix. Deep in the heart of Cajun Country, every Labor Day Weekend, tens of thousands of people celebrate at Louisiana's oldest chartered harvest festival.

The festival has been honoring those who have worked tirelessly through rain and shine...and sometimes even hurricanes, to provide the area's economic lifeblood for over half a century. The festival also emphasizes the unique way in which these two seemingly different industries work hand-in-hand culturally and environmentally in this area of the "Cajun Coast."

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration