photo-eye Gallery
Photographers Showcase: Ben Depp's Louisiana
Jovi Esquivel
photo-eye Gallery is pleased to welcome Ben Depp to the Photographer's Showcase and his series based on the wetlands on Louisiana's Gulf Coast.
photo-eye Gallery is delighted to welcome artist
Ben Depp, and feature his arresting photographs of the Louisiana Gulf Coast, into the
Photographer's Showcase!
Ben Depp is an artist and National Geographic Explorer based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Much of Ben's work has been centered around environmental issues, and his ongoing work documents wetland loss and coastal erosion in Louisiana. Over the past eighty years, the Louisiana Coast has lost 2,000 square miles of wetlands.
This week, we are sharing an interview between the artist and Gallery Associate Jovi Esquivel. The two discussed Depp's passion for documenting the changing landscape of the Gulf Coast, and the motorized paraglider Depp uses to travel throughout the coastline to capture his images.
• • •
Jovi Esquivel: What is your background as a photographer,
what drew you into the world of picture-making?
Ben Depp:
The magic of being able to see and connect with people and places around the
world through photographs is what first drew me into the world of photography. I
studied photography in college. I lived in my car during that time so that I
would be able to pursue photography without the burden of debt. I then worked at
a newspaper and freelanced for magazines, newspapers, and non-profits in a
number of countries. I lived in Haiti for five years, which precipitated a shift
in my photography to cover environmental issues. I was in Haiti when the 2010
earthquake struck, and I covered the aftermath of the earthquake, the cholera
epidemic, and much political unrest. I have PTSD from some of those experiences,
and making beautiful (but also meaningful) landscape photographs has been part
of my healing process.
JE: Wow, it sounds like despite
the trauma you experienced, you are still committed to the medium.
BD: I still believe in the power of photography to connect people to the
earth and to each other. The environments I currently work in are very remote
and hard to access. Through my photographs, I think people can begin to see the
beauty and value of this landscape and better understand what we are losing. I
think making these photographs is the most worthwhile use of my time right now.
JE: What inspired you to create your current body of work?
BD: When I moved to New Orleans in 2013, I wanted to
photograph a project about Louisiana’s coast, which is the largest area of
wetlands in the United States and the fastest-eroding coastline. The human
impact of land loss in Louisiana has been well-documented, so I wanted to
do something different. I first saw this landscape by air when flying into
New Orleans on a commercial flight, and knew it was an incredible vantage
point. I learned how to fly a powered paraglider and started exploring. My
aerial photographs contribute to the existing body of work on Louisiana by
centering the landscape.
JE: Will you share your process — how do you prepare to go out
and shoot for your current project, what’s it like once you’re out making
photographs?
BD: South Louisiana is flat, so to get
any perspective on the landscape it helps to be able to get off the
ground. To do that, I’ve been exploring the Louisiana coast by powered
paraglider for eight years. A powered paraglider is maybe the world’s
smallest aircraft. I wear a motor on my back with a propeller on it and
have a paraglider wing overhead. I usually launch half an hour before
sunrise or a couple of hours before sunset and fly for hours at a time.
With the paraglider. I can fly between 15 to 10,000 feet in the
air. I enjoy flying low and slow to see all the textures and detail in the
grasses, flowers, and trees below me. I rarely go out with a plan to
photograph a specific place or thing. All of the magic I have found has
been while spending hours exploring.
JE: Does your
powered paraglider allow you to hoover in place — to allow you to compose
your photograph?
BD: I wish I could hover. But, no,
I’m always moving at somewhere between 15-40 miles per hour, so my process
would be similar to photographing from your car window as you drive. I use
a very high shutter speed to avoid motion blur, and I have to compose
intuitively to try and get the composition I’m hoping for.
Each flight is still simultaneously exhilarating and a little terrifying.
One of my favorite things is to be a few hundred feet up at sunrise over
the wetlands and watch the colors change in the marsh as the sun comes up.
JE: Sunrises are my favorite, this sounds glorious!
BD: I spend a lot of time camping. After exploring accessible parts
of the coast for several years, I built a 19-foot wooden sailboat to
access Louisiana’s remote barrier islands. I carry my powered paraglider
in my sailboat, which I can sail and row to an island, where I then launch
my paraglider. I’ve camped for up to a week in some of the most remote
parts of South Louisiana.
Although I’ve been a photographer for almost 20 years, I’ve found my
photographic voice through this project. By slowing down, spending days at
a time camping, traveling slowly by sailboat, and then powered paraglider,
I am seeing the natural world around me more clearly. The photographs I’m
now making reflect my increased connection and sensitivity to this place.
• • • •
Ben Depp is an artist and National Geographic Explorer based in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Much of Ben’s work has centered around environmental issues and his
environmental photography has been funded by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis
Reporting, the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, the Ford
Foundation, and the National Geographic Society.
Ben's ongoing work documents wetland loss and coastal erosion in Louisiana.
The wetlands on Louisiana's Gulf Coast are eroding at the rate of a football
field every 30 minutes. Ben's work serves as a memorial to this vanishing
landscape.
He makes aerial images by powered paraglider, which allows him hours of exploration, a low flight path, and the time-intensive search for surprising compositions.
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