Along the coastline of San Francisco Bay and abutting Silicon Valley’s sprawl, an alien landscape unfolds — an otherworldly mosaic of vivid colors and fractured geometries. Here, seawater channeled from tidal marshlands through a network of narrow sluice gates enters into successive evaporation ponds. As salinity rises, blue-green water turns golden, then deep crimson, as only the most resilient microorganisms survive. Railway structures built to move salt to our tables, icy roads, and industrial kitchens intersect fields of white salt. 150 years of salt production have taken their toll on wildlife and their habitats in the ascendancy of industry over ecology.
And yet, amidst this almost alien landscape, there are signs of renewal. Efforts to reclaim and restore the wetlands are gaining momentum in this “Battle for the Bay”. Our project, Bayscapes, seeks to capture this fragile turning point. Through unaltered bold, color-saturated images—at once geometric, abstract, and organic—we document a landscape in flux. We aim to evoke the strange beauty of the salt ponds and the tenuous hope that nature might one day reclaim its place in this wondrous place we consider our home.
Ellen and Steve are life partners and collaborators in fine art photography. Their work draws on the tensions between development and ecology. The images reflect Steve’s eye for geometry and light, elevated by Ellen’s interest in memory, meaning, and color. Their images quietly and without judgment, draw the viewer into the always complicated and contentious interactions that will determine our future on earth.
Their work has appeared in galleries and museums in the US and Japan, including the Center for Photographic Arts, Carmel, The Griffin Museum of Photography, Boston, Soho Photo Gallery, NYC, Lenswork, the Triton Museum in Santa Clara. Steve and Ellen received PhD's in Psychology and contributed to the emergence of the digital age as Google, Apple, IBM, and Intel executives.
Website
www.goldband.com
Collaborating Artist
Ellen Konar
