MY QUEST TO SEE ALL THE TIDAL LEVELS AT ONCE

The first time I visited Wild Moor Point white water crested the tallest rocks. The second time the water was all but gone. Taking one landscape photograph wasn’t compelling to me, but the drastic expanse in the tidal levels was. The question arose: How can I express the magnitude of tidal change here all at once? It took two years to find the answer and another two years to create the TIDAL BLOCK picture. My efforts unveiled a singular day—one that could never exist but allowed me to see the cumulative memories of tidal strata simultaneously.

THE TIDAL BLOCK FILM

The four intense years that I dedicated to the TIDAL BLOCK picture inspired a film. From the impetus behind it, the creation, and hidden meaning, all is revealed.

Watch the epilogue to uncover the secret beneath the tides and the Intertidal Project itself.

Videography, art direction, sound, and editing by Kerry Mansfield.

THE COLOR OF TIME

I had created the puzzle pieces but had no idea what the puzzle was supposed to look like. I recalled my childhood introduction to art, a 1950s accordion-fold book titled The Art of Japanese Woodblock Printing. The first panel was a landscape outline, and each sequential fold was stamped with one carved layer of color until the completed picture materialized at the end. This perfect illustration of how the layering process forms a composition led me to realize that instead of blocks of color I could fill my outline with blocks of time.

THE TIDAL BLOCK EQUATION

There had to be a method to the madness, or I could never combine forty days of photographs to make one picture. To convey the tidal levels, I grouped the rocks by height. The tallest rocks were filled with white water, as they were the rarest condition to witness, while constantly exposed areas were left empty. The medium-sized rocks were filled or half-filled to depict the constant intertidal zone shift, sometimes hidden, sometimes revealed. I left the lowest subtidal rocks empty since they can rarely be seen at all. With the TIDAL BLOCK print equation established, I could finally realize my original goal to see all the tidal levels at once.