Relics 2016: Portraits of Dying Places
A photo by Frank McMains
Atilt over the Gulf Coast in a rumbling helicopter, Frank McMains is pure photographer, entwined with his camera as the high-flying ride proffers a rare aerial view of the Louisiana coastline.
“Louisiana is so difficult to really grasp because we’re at sea level. We’re hemmed in by vegetation all the time,” said McMains. “You don’t get any sense of what’s going on except what’s right around you.”
Back on earth, when his heart rate rests, McMains is able to look over his images and reflect. He doesn’t stay calm for long.
“You see this weird disjunction between the manmade and the natural,” he said. From overhead, lower Louisiana is tattered, threadbare in parts. “There’s an enormous cost that’s been extracted from the state. You can’t export the wealth of a place somewhere else and expect the place you took the wealth from to do well.”
The added threat of coastal erosion isn’t breaking news. “I’ve heard that football-field-an-hour statistic since I was in high school,” said McMains. “The coast has always been a ragged thing. But when you put rigid things in the ragged… Our roads, bridges, pipelines, waterlines, our everything relies on the world not being in flux—and the coast is not going to oblige us.”
So what’s to be done? McMains thinks we’re still in the educational phase, demanding real answers and increased concern from our state’s leaders. For those who claim ignorance, McMains has his photographs ready as proof. “Once it became clear how much people responded to [the pictures], I felt a responsibility to keep talking about it. I realized how dire it is, and the people I talk to think it’s dire too.
“Maybe it’s too horrible to discuss,” he added. “But I hope the photographs provoke some internal conversations and external conversations.”
Visit frankmcmains.com to view more of McMains’ work. Details on joining our Relics photography project here.