Major Project Summary

John Easterby suggested writing out a summary of my project to help in the editing process. It worked. This is my "artist's statment," a term I feel uneasy with, and what I will have printed on the exhibition program and post in the show itself:

“The devastating impact of climate change, mainly caused by ballooning carbon emissions from rich Western nations, will hit hardest in Africa, a United Nations report has warned…Up to 30 per cent of Africa's coast could disappear as sea levels rise from between 15cm to 95cm in the next 100 years. Important cities such as Cape Town, Dar es Salaam and Maputo are at risk.” –The Independent, Nov. 6, 2006.

Vanishing Coast is an examination of the people who make Maputo’s beaches unique, find them sacred and spiritual, or use them for recreation or their economic livelihood. I began the project in 2007, initially building on an idea to document Lisbon’s marginal from Lisbon to Cascais. However, the evidence of coastal erosion in Maputo was so shocking, I immediately changed my focus. As a staff photographer at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in the U.S., I worked on an award-winning project called “The Beach Builders.” This project documented the impact of coastal erosion in Florida and other states. I tapped into that experience and began researching the problem in Maputo.

The collapsing road between the Mercado do Peixe and Costa do Sol was the most glaring example of erosion along the Marginal. Repairs were made and sea walls were built in an effort to prevent the ocean’s advance. Exposed roots of casuarina trees, originally planted to slow erosion, hang like skeletons to show where sand dunes once stood. And the most striking example of what Maputo’s beaches looked like less than 80 years ago are found in photographs of colonial Lourenço Marques by photographer José dos Santos Rufino. These photos, taken circa 1929, show a vast coastline with large beaches that no longer exist, as do other historical photos taken throughout the 20th century.

An advisor to the Mozambican government predicted that within 10 to 50 years Maputo’s beaches will disappear. The tees planted to slow deterioration are regularly felled and efforts to slow erosion, such as building seawalls and dumping construction rubble along the beach have failed. Experts attributed the 2007 flooding of Bairro dos Pescadores to climate change and Costa do Sol’s greatest protection from the Indian Ocean, Xefina Grande, is at risk of disappearing from the effects of rapid erosion.

Rather than photograph the progression of the coast’s physical deterioration, I chose to create a portrait of the coast through the people. This is a look of what will be lost without intervention.

Thinking Adam and Olly

I've found Olly and Adam very intense. I had my first tutorial last week with Adam, and it was incredibly useful. I was mostly interested in talking about my final project and wanted to get a bit of guidance and feedback. It's definitely out of my comfort zone and their work, way of thinking and methods are far from anything I've every done. They're on that line of art and documentary photography that is appealing and powerful, but still difficult for me to embrace entirely, but it is affecting the way I think these days.

Religious Groups

I've been spending a lot of time hanging out with the Mazione, one of the religious groups that worships and performs many of their rituals here. In getting access to them, I've had to explain often to different groups of people what I'm doing and what I'm photographing for. Doing so repeatedly has helped me in my own mind focus more on what I'm doing and what I need to do in this ongoing project. People that will most affected by the beach eroding are the religious groups: the Mazione, Zion and Universal; the fishermen and people using the beaches recreationally which would tie into the tourism draw aspect of it. Ed's criticism/advice still sticks with me though and I would like to find, although it's a bit tough, someone who might be suffering the effects now. I'm looking.

Overdoing it

I've been putting far too much time dealing with my before and after pictures. I've hiked a trash-strewn hillside dodging human feces, gone to a private luxury home's owner to see the view from their balcony (it was blocked by trees), gone through a chain of command at a private park to photograph from their hillside land and finally sweet talked my way past two doormen to the twentieth floor of a building that has a fair view of the coastal strip of road I'm covering.

I've contacted a long line of people searching for the copyright owners of the historical photograph and now am being put on hold by the bank who owns the rights. I've been researching copyright law and examining "fair use." Nevertheless, one of the photographs that I made today is probably about as good as I'll get to duplicating it because there is simply too many trees and shrubbery including in front of the landmark that I wanted to show. It's not ideal, but I'm happy with what I've gotten. It's times like this when I will probably look back and wonder why the heck I spent so much time and effort on this picture which might not even make an edit.

As for my borders project, my Brazilian nuns have pushed my meeting date with them back several times and did it again this evening. I'm set to meet them again on Thursday. My minefield contacts from HALO Trust have both moved rather abruptly. One has gone to Cambodia and the other to another Mozambican region to set up a new office. So, I'm on hold to meet the replacement who won't be here for two weeks I believe. If it wasn't a minefield, I'd just bypass them and go alone, but that could mean trouble. Next week, however, I'll be going away for a few days to visit with rats who locate landmines in Chokwe, Mozambique.