life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 minutes
2.4 pounds
724.9 pounds total
My friend, phenomenal photographer and print maker Mary Michel sent me a link to a Vimeo about the couple in Northern California who makes art out of the plastics that they find washed ashore on their beach. Richard Lang and Judith Selby have been at this for over a decade! I wrote about them in a recent post, with a link to this video, but it is so good that I had to mention it again!
Here is a link to the couple's blog that chronicles their project that has been going on for 12 YEARS! That's right 12 YEARS.
They collected 2 tons in one year off of their local beach! I wonder how long they were out there for at a time? I hope that it was for a lot longer than 20 minutes to get that much trash!!
Like Richard and Judith say, they are not cleaning their beach in the sense that what they collect will make a dent in the flow of materials to and from the water, but that they are curating it. I hope that I too can do the same in my own way with my photographs and posts. What a cool feeling to be connected to their work, and to the efforts of all of the motivated, and talented folks talking about this urgent issue. Their inspiration started from a walk on the beach, and so did mine. What would come to mind if you took a walk on the beach and asked yourself the same thing? What can I add to the conversation?
