Learn to Look
Coral restoration, up close
Photographs made as part of a campaign connecting reef protection with the polluting industries and the financial systems that enable fossil-fuel expansion. A collaboration with Sama Sama, Insure Our Survival and Boycott Bloody Insurance.
These photos are not from the Coral Triangle directly, but from the wider Southeast Asian reef context. The Coral Triangle is highly threatened:
Coral restoration sounds technical, and many parts of it are. But while learning not to cause more damage in the first place, much of the work is surprisingly low-tech: slates, surveys, mapping, brushes and zip ties. You don't need to have studied marine biology (insane respect if you have) to start understanding the basics. You do need time, training and attention.
The same reefs people experience as beauty, tourism, escapism or adventure are also shaped by industry pressures that feel much further away. Having spent just a tiny fraction of my life around corals, this is the gap I think about: what care looks like up close and what damage looks like from a distance.