The Beauty & Poetry Of The Natural Processes Of Salt Crystallization

By Edge of Humanity Magazine, May 2, 2021

Photographer Catherine Marcogliese is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this seascape work. From the series ‘saltPONDS’. To see Catherine’s body of work, click on any image.

The series saltPONDS focuses on the contrast between the organic growth and patterning of salt crystallization, and the rigid geometry of the salt flats landscape. The delineation of the landscape by the built structures which contain the ponds imposes a geometrical grid on the landscape. In contrast, the salt crystallization in the ponds articulates the surface of the water, creating intricate, organic patterns that become the focus of this photographic work.

There is an obvious interplay between the function of the built structures and the production which they engender, i.e.: how the landscape, or in this case, the seascape is manipulated by man to make it productive. However, despite the rather brutal intervention of the rectilinear containment system, this series attempts to capture the beauty and poetry of the natural processes of salt crystallization within the dynamic of this particular landscape.