I've spent the last couple of days since my tutorial with Ed Kashi at the Vila dos Pescadores, fishing village, photographing on the Marginal. He stressed that I show more of the impact of the beach erosion. It's a bit of a challenge to show it through pictures rather than explain it with words. My solution thus far has been to show various aspects of the erosion as interestingly as I can. For instance, in the time I've been working on this project I have a few detail before and after pictures showing the literally crumbling road then the patched up road with a newly constructed sea wall. I've also photographed several trees with their roots exposed which, to me, is quite graphic, eerie but yet aesthetically pleasing. Most are "casuarina trees" which were planted by the Portuguese to stop beach erosion. I've done some construction shots with tractors on the beach building sea walls, but they're not my best, and Homer made a point that has stuck with me about keeping the best photography for the project rather than some of these types of pictures which he–in his very frank sort of Homer way–are boring.Nevertheless, Ed made a great point and it's certainly one that I've been aware of and trying to solve. The best way I can think of so far is to show a before and after picture using a historical photograph (I have a bad copy of my favorite so far) of a beach that no longer exists along with a photo today of the same area. I think it is sort of stark and to the point, but I don't know if it's bad form to lean on another photographer's old picture to make that point. Plus, I don't know who the photographer was and the legalities of using it which I should know. Its an old magazine article copy hanging up displayed with other old postcard and historical pictures at a club on the Marginal and none of the management can give me the answer either. I actually like their copy because a note scribbled on it says "Ponta destruida," or destroyed point.
As far as shooting the fishing village, it's technically part of the Marginal, but I had been concentrating on the point of development and the paved road to town which people consider "the Marginal" which starts at the Costa do Sol Bridge separating the dirt road that leads to the village. However, the expert who has been my source learning about Maputo's beach erosion problem often uses it as an example of a destroyed point on the city's coast. The government has done as much patching as they can putting rocks and seawalls to save the road from crumbling away, but the beach sounds like its doomed. I did more of what I've been doing–showing the people and life there–as well as incorporated a new sea wall and the rocks mentioned above in pictures.
Back when I was starting, I had a critique from the photo editor of the El Paso Times, Rudy Gutierrez, who was really harsh yet honest. The biggest point he made was that my captions were really long and descriptive, and it was evident that I was a writer. He said that my photos should speak for themselves without captions and that I should be able to simply show pictures instead of explaining everything in such detail. The toughest critiques have always stuck with me and thickened my skin, but its funny how something from so long ago is still like Jiminy Cricket chirping in my ear.
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