Capturing the Beauty of Seaweed: A Photographic Journey

Hey everyone!

I'm currently on Easter break from uni, so I'm back with another post while I have the time to write!

For this post I wanted to introduce you guys to my current project that I have been working on, titled 'Tides of Possibility'.

Some kelp washed up on the beach

I initially began this project with a large interest in the seaweed farming industry, which is still very much in its infancy here in the UK. My original plan was to produce a photographic portfolio that explored the small handful of seaweed farms we currently had in the UK. However, after some accessibility issues, along with the realisation of how many other seaweed-related projects and businesses were operating near me, I decided to broaden my horizons.

I began researching seaweed as a whole, the huge variety of useful properties it has, and the even bigger variety of applications it has, both throughout history, as well as in the modern world.

The thing is, many people have some common misconceptions about seaweed. They see it as a nuisance, as this smelly, slimy stuff that washes up on our beaches and is left to rot and decompose, as the scary thing that wraps around your feet when you're swimming in the sea.

Gathering 'cast' (washed up) seaweed from the beach

However, seaweed actually plays a much larger role in all of our lives than we might realise. It plays multiple key roles in maintaining coastal ecosystems, providing food and habitat for other marine species living there. Seaweeds also absorb excess nutrients in the sea, helping to keep our waters clean. They can also aid in reducing ocean acidification by absorbing carbon dioxide. If it has all of this to offer, why is it so incredibly overlooked, misunderstood, and under-appreciated?!

It didn't make sense to me - I HAD to do something about it.

Visions for the project started forming in my head: a series of short stories exploring the intriguing and important ways that people are using this overlooked thing to their advantage, using imagery to shed a light on the importance of turning to more sustainable, eco-friendly resources in this day and age. After much brainstorming and more research, the concept for the project started to materialise as a celebration of seaweed, aiming to educate people on its properties and raise awareness of just how ignored this marine organism is.

I started reaching out to the various companies that I had come across - and there were a LOT. After many hours spent sending emails, making phone calls, direct messaging on all the social media platforms, I gradually started getting some replies, invitations to work with and document their work.

I was totally blown away by people’s kindness in their responses and willingness to collaborate. In a world that is often so full of negativity, it was extremely refreshing to have the chance to work with such creative minds, and document important work that has the potential to go such a long way in helping some serious environmental issues. 

Alongside documenting these small stories, I began photographing the champion of the project, too: the seaweed itself. I started experimenting photographing it in a studio setting, aiming to produce a series of still life images that highlighted the pure beauty, and also species diversity, of seaweeds.

I played around with off-camera flash, positioning it in different angles, and started to get some really interesting results. Each time I showed these images to someone new, they were intrigued. It was as if the images were painting seaweed in a light that had never been seen before. So I continued with this practice, each time finding a new species on our shorelines that I hadn't photographed before. I was almost trying to build up a visual database for the different seaweed species found on our beaches in Falmouth. These images gradually came together to form a separate section for the project, but one that works alongside and compliments the documentary body of work.

One of my seaweed portraits, showcasing Serrated Wrack (Fucus serratus)

Thousands of images, and many, many seaweed stories later, time was passing and my uni deadline was creeping closer. I had to consider how I was going to submit this project. To me, it was a natural decision to present the current body of work as a book, with a supporting set of prints. The book would allow me to really tell a more in-depth story about seaweed, its uses and the important people putting it to good use, while the supporting prints would showcase the beauty of the seaweed, and highlight the most important elements of the story. Although I plan on continuing this project past the end of my degree, this felt like the best way to submit the work with where it is at at this point.

So that's where I am currently up to! I am patiently waiting for the book and prints to be printed, which should hopefully be done in the next couple of weeks. I plan on writing another short post to show the final outcome, and talk about how I plan on exhibiting the work in our end of year show. I am also going to be writing a series of posts talking about the individual stories featured in the book, along with the lighting techniques I used to produce my seaweed portraits.

I will leave it there for now, but be sure to check back soon for some more seaweed stories, and to see where my work will take me post-university!

Elle x