Morgan Maassen

spending long hot days in the Maldives is equal parts intense as it is stunning. when the sun rises at 5am and sets at 9pm, the heat kills you and even the ocean is not refreshing to swim in. at high noon, when the heat surpasses 35c and everyone hides in the shade, i find the colors to be most vibrant: the rich blues of the sea, the blinding white sand, and the lush green jungle of the islands... it takes my breath away. i love photographing there, but i won't lie... it can be more intense than idyllic.

when i was 18 and first started exploring photography, i immediately became obsessed with shooting at night. i’d explore Santa Barbara by bike, spending long sleepless nights huddling up near any body of water or clear vantage point, to then fumble with a self-timer, trying to align a composition that wasn’t blurry or under-exposed. with so much trial and error throughout the years, it has become one of my favorite methodologies to shoot… for its slow, peaceful measure and way of observing the world in minute-long intervals, breathes new awe into the most simple of moments. – Morgan Maassen

Santa Cruz Island – Will Adler

"I have been lucky enough to be going out to the Channel Islands since I was a teenager. The islands are one of my favorite places to be. They are the closest you can get to seeing what Southern California would be like with out development" - Will Adler

Santa Barbara-based photographer Will Adler has an eye for creating beautiful sharp, yet disorienting images. The photographs confuse and crop reality that asks the viewer to question the truth of the photograph and consider the manipulation of lighting and perspective that photography involves. Some are absurdly deadpan, straight photographs, while others are noticeably more intricate in their staging. Adler’s collections of photos push us back and forth, in and out of reality, all with a sly wink of humor that keeps you grinning.

-Juxapoz Magazine

Vanishing Sands: How Sand Mining is Stripping Away Earth’s Beaches by Orrin Pilkey, et al – Duke | Nicholas School of the Environment

Cover art: Forest City, Johor, Malaysia, 2017. (Photograph by Sim Chi Yin, courtesy of Duke University Press)

A new book from Duke University Press, “Vanishing Sands: Losing Beaches to Mining,” casts light on the shadowy world of sand mining through case studies that illuminate its disastrous impacts and a concluding chapter that proposes common-sense solutions.

Because of the tradition of viewing beaches as public land, people have historically thought of beach sand as a free and limitless resource, Pilkey and his co-authors explain in their preface to “Vanishing Sands…”

The Panta Rhei Series: Coca-Cola – by ©1011

Panta Rhei Coca-Cola, 2020 ©1011Plastic fragments collected on the beach, Terrigal (New South Wales, Australia) By © 1011 In the spirit of Maria Sibylla Merian’s 18th century naturalistic plates, The New World Order Series is composed of drawings of fish stamped with the logos of the most polluting firms in terms of plastic waste: Coca Cola, […]