Red tide
A book on leisure, denial, & ecological grief on Florida’s Gulf Coast
In 2018, a massive algal bloom known as the red tide suffocated Florida’s Gulf Coast. As toxins choked the ocean of oxygen, marine life began washing ashore— hundreds of tons of fish, birds, turtles, and dolphins lining the beaches in a slow-moving tide of decay. A pungent smell of rotting fish permeated the air while tourists sunbathed beside decomposing wildlife. Yet Florida, a state built on the myths of endless leisure and climate denial, continued to sell paradise.
Red Tide is a photography book of intimate environmental portraits that center the sentience and grief of marine life, revealing the absurd relationship between the climate crisis and human comfort in the Anthropocene. It exposes the comfort of complicity: our willingness to endure harm in order to maintain the illusion of leisure.
We’re currently seeking a publisher. If you’d like to collaborate, we’d love to hear from you:
kanta.collaborative@gmail.com
View a sample of our book
All Photographs are on 35mm film, with each image carrying physical artifacts of the disaster. In some photographs, chemical residue left on negatives echo the toxic aerosols that saturated the air. While in others, the use of expired film cause blue-toned images, evoking drowning, memory, and the sea itself.