Tidal etchings

Written By Christopher Pearce
Top down aerial photograph of a coastal wetland where dark tidal water, green algae, a narrow stony shoreline, and dense mangroves give way to patterned marsh and bright mossy pools.

Tidal etchings. 2020.

Seen from above, the edge of Swan Bay turns into handwriting. Water, algae, stone and mangrove each take a line, banding across the frame like stripes on a tide-drawn map. The top third feels heavy and dark, the colour of soaked paper, while the lower marsh breaks into bright, almost neon moss and small reflective pools. From this height the landscape stops looking purely natural and begins to feel designed: channels curve like brushstrokes, trees gather into a soft green bar, and the shoreline becomes a single drawn line holding everything in place, a quiet record of how water keeps sketching and revising the same edge over time.

24mm • f/4.0 • 1/320 sec • ISO 100

Christopher Pearce
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