Those who have studied the Smithsonian are no doubt familiar with the U.S. Navy’s U.S. Exploring Expedition, called the Ex. Ex. for short. This ambitious trip around the world took four-years (1838-1842), included six ships, and the crew had a team of nine scientists and artists. It is one of the largest in the history of scientific discovery and thousands of articles (from ethnographic artifacts to biological specimens) were collected. These objects became the foundation of the Smithsonian’s collections.
Right around this time, in Great Britain, Anna Atkins was experimenting with a new photographic technology called the cyanotype. Using ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, it makes blue images (this is the process that would come to be used to create architectural blueprints). Atkins made impressions of algae by laying her algal specimens directly onto paper coated with these chemicals and then exposing them to sunlight. From these images, she created the first photographic book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843).
Among the specimens gathered during the Ex. Ex. were numerous stony corals, many of which were the first of their species described by science (such specimens are known as holotypes). But with the technology at the time, it would’ve been difficult to make meaningful cyanotypes of these corals, as the process requires the object to be relatively flat and being somewhat translucent is also helpful. Neither of which applies to most stony corals. However, using digital photography, I was able to capture images of particularly charismatic specimens in the Smithsonian Invertebrate Zoology coral collection. Along with the associated data, as well as scraps of paper and notes that are attached to these items (which, I think, tell interesting tales of both the history of these objects as well as their species more generally), I imagine a historic collision between the Ex. Ex. and Anna Atkins.
I was driven to do so because such stony corals are in great peril due to the rise in the temperature and acidity of the oceans, which is driven by climate change. Coral reef bleaching events, where the living coral is abandoned by its symbiotic algae, result in corals with tissues so transparent all that can be seen is their white skeletons. Bleaching events increase coral mortality, and have become more frequent and of greater magnitude in recent years. I hope that my cyanotypes are an aesthetic and conceptual reflection on the trouble facing coral: the blue and white prints look like a sea full of the white coral skeletons… within my lifetime, it’s possible that most of what will be left of stony corals are their skeletons, crumbling in the oceans or on museum shelves [See Additional Reading below].
Printing these images as cyanotypes, a technique once used by architects also seems significant. In many ways, stony corals are the “architecture of the oceans.” The reefs that they create are among the most biodiverse environments on the planet and are critical breeding and feeding grounds for many other marine creatures. If these reefs perish, many species will be without a home and the effects will resonate across the oceans. Many of these effects will be felt by human societies around the globe. In economic terms, the value of reefs is immense.
It’s not too late for the coral, although we’re at a critical moment when action is required to save them, and there is plenty that can be done. Historical, The Ex. Ex and Atkins represent two crucial moments for the democratization and dispersion of information… The Ex. Ex. was a grand and ambitious voyage of discovery, while Atkins as the persistent individual pursuing knowledge. This seems fitting, as both ambitious global coordination as well as thoughtful personal choices are crucially needed if we are to save the world’s coral.
My title for this series is Ex. Ex. Colonies. This title pays homage to the U.S. Exploring Expedition, although many of the coral I photographed were collected on later voyages (coincidentally, I find it very interesting that the age of coral collecting maps remarkably well onto the heyday analog photography, roughly from the 1830’s to the early 2000’s). And colonies, of course, refers to most familiar corals being colonial species. But my title is a word play with multiple meanings. For example, “Ex. Ex.” also refers to the removal of these species from the environment through human intervention (once by scientists collecting these specific corals and now at a global scale due to climate change). And “Colonies” also references the problematic colonial history that is entwined with the history of museum collecting.
by Todd R. Forsgren [Edited by Allen G. Collins]
Additional Reading:
- Smithsonian Ocean Portal's "Corals and Coral Reefs"
- NOAA's National Ocean Service's "Coral Reefs - Rainforests of the Sea" [and links therein]
- NPR's "Climate Change Is Killing Coral On The Great Barrier Reef"
- UN Environment's "Fate of Corals Hangs in the Balance"
- International Coral Reefs Initiative's "The Coral Reef Economy The business case for investment in the protection, preservation and enhancement of coral reef health"
- Reef Resilience Network's "Value of Reefs"
- NOAA's National Ocean Service's "What can I do to protect coral reefs?"
Awesome!
Posted by: Daniel Jackson | 10 June 2019 at 12:29 PM