Kerry Mansfield: The Intertidal Project

©Kerry Mansfield, Shadow Trace XV, SHADOW TRACE XVI emerges from an increasing relationship with the Sea Ranch panorama, the place distant areas known as throughout rocky divides. My shadow—an ever-present companion—perches alongside precarious cliffs, leaving ghost traces in its wake. With every passage, my worn pathways inscribe new layers of reminiscence, accumulating like strata and mapping a gentle presence throughout the shifting terrain.

The Intertidal Project by Kerry Mansfield is a meditation on time, reminiscence, and our relationship to a specific place. Through years of sustained statement of a specific stretch of Northern California shoreline, Mansfield’s images information a second to disclose the buildup of moments that study the invisible layers of expertise that bind us to the landscapes we love. As tides rise and recede, rocks emerge and disappear, and the shoreline is regularly rewritten, reminiscence turns into inseparable from the land itself.

What started as an intimate investigation of notion has advanced into an pressing reflection on environmental change. The very locations that formed this physique of labor are actually disappearing underneath the pressures of a altering local weather, reworking a private archive right into a report of loss. By making time seen, The Intertidal Project asks us to think about not solely what we see, however what we stand to lose—and the way paying nearer consideration to the locations we cherish could also be step one towards defending them.

A dialog with the artist follows.

©Kerry Mansfield, THE INTERTIDAL PROJECT RETURN LOCATION ATTEMPT STRING MAP 2019 – 2024, The eight-foot-wide string map tracks all return visits to curated areas destined for TIDAL BLOCK works. The giant pictures doc my preliminary visits to every spot serving as information “targets”. The smaller pictures strung to their “target” origin prints seize every obsessive try and recreate the very same compositions over 5 years (and counting).

The INTERTIDAL PROJECT 

The Intertidal Project explores progressive methods to depict the passage of time by my long-term, photo-based work, which examines how reminiscence is fashioned when an individual is affected by a cherished place. Each encounter etches a line of reminiscence in time on each the particular person and the place, like geological strata. By turning into acutely aware of those cumulative underlying reminiscences, we will reveal the unfolding of time.

Standing above the Pacific Ocean, I requested, “How can I capture the magnitude of tidal change in a single place?” This query led me to discover new photographic landscapes. The reply got here in noticing the delicate distinction between notion and consciousness. Six years of pictures slowly uncovered the depth of reciprocal strata between us whereas I progressively mapped the interplay between my presence and the shoreline.

My existence as a photographer is formed by the tides, dawn and sundown, and the shortage of time. In documenting place, I’m additionally documenting reminiscence—and time itself. Over eight years of unremitting visits to the identical areas, I photographed the 11-mile stretch of California shoreline often called Sea Ranch. Through meticulous statement, I developed a posh physique of labor exploring the themes of Memory, Imprint, Mapping, and Strata.

A cherished childhood e-book “The Art of Japanese Woodblock Printing” impressed my imaginative and prescient to unmask the rocks beneath the water utilizing time as an alternative of panels of coloration to recreate the panorama. Through 40 visits to Wild Moor Point over the following 4 years of impassioned work, one ensuing “Tidal Block” image turned the fulcrum of the Project. Fascinated with the buildup of time I crafted the image to relay the depth of our expertise collectively and unveiled a singular day that might by no means exist revealing all of the tidal ranges.

From above, the shoreline seems mounted—however strolling its edge from an ant’s perspective reveals a map in fixed flux. My 8×4’ string map traces a whole lot of visits to pick out areas, whereas journal pages scrawled on cliff edges recorded passing days, and the ocean lapped on the ink, leaving its personal replies. Shadows lingered, footprints etched contours, and the panorama responded. Recent work—together with video, sound, and 3-D kinds—invitations viewers to step into the expertise of the place itself.

Since 2023, colossal winter storms have reshaped the Northern California shoreline. A slender cliff edge the place I as soon as stood now lies in jumbled rocks 100 toes under. Losing this vantage level has erased essential knowledge collected over six years and introduced a profound sense of loss. My archive of time, reminiscence, and place now confronts excessive climate, elevating a brand new query: “How do I show what used to be here?”

The Sea Ranch shoreline has been profoundly impacted by local weather change, shifting the challenge from inward reflection to engagement with exterior forces. My newest work in progress, LOSING GROUND, confronts the relentless advance of environmental loss. Sharing my challenge can foster recognition of the area between notion and consciousness —an important first step in addressing local weather change by collective empathy.

©Kerry Mansfield, INK TRACE WASH RELEASE, Documenting the second earlier than photographing an INK TRACE, I launch my accomplished journal web page into the ocean to witness the paper touring within the water till it’s retrieved and transforms into an INK TRACE picture.

For over 20 years, Kerry Mansfield has developed a photographic observe targeted on the passage of time and the way it shapes our perceptions of what we see and expertise. Since 2018, she has undertaken The Intertidal Project, an ongoing, long-term documentation of 11 miles of Northern California shoreline. Kerry’s experience, inventive imaginative and prescient, and rigorous self-discipline information the formidable work by in depth photographic documentation, analysis, self-devised techniques, journals, notebooks, and movie—forming a deeply layered report that bridges inventive inquiry and environmental statement.

Pushing the boundaries of conventional panorama images, Kerry transforms the art work itself into each a inventive and investigative automobile by which environmental change is examined and made seen. Through a particular technical method, the work information delicate environmental shifts that reveal the delicate and more and more drastic alterations of the panorama.

Through The Intertidal Project, she constructs a sustained portrait of local weather change because it unfolds, positioning the work as each a strong inventive observe and an evolving visible observatory of a shoreline present process profound environmental transformation.

Instagram: @kerrymansfield

©Kerry Mansfield, WILD MOOR POINT TARGET PRINT IN-SITU, I held a pattern “target” {photograph} with an overlaid grid throughout every “Return Location Attempt” to Wild Moor Point. Every go to generated 1000’s of frames amassed to craft the primary TIDAL BLOCK print. The strains mimic the identical grid within the digital camera viewfinder affording the chance to manifest the archetypical compositions primarily based on Japanese wooden block printing.

Tell us about your rising up and what introduced you to images.

Each era on my mom’s aspect has produced an artist. My uncle initially taught me how to attract, however at eleven years previous I used to be given a small point-and-shoot movie digital camera. During our household’s annual Fourth of July celebration, I turned the designated photographer. The developed movie revealed I had unintentionally reduce off everybody’s head within the body. Since portraits have been clearly not in my future, I started organising nonetheless life preparations full with Hubba Bubba gum, coloured pencils, and stuffed animals.

I used to be all the time arranging issues as a toddler—redecorating my room, shifting furnishings, and making issues to hold on the skin of my bed room door. Looking again, the impulse to prepare visible components and assemble one thing from them was already there.

Photography was an costly passion for a kid, so I returned to drawing and ultimately took undergraduate artwork courses at UC Berkeley. I may solely draw what was instantly in entrance of me, by no means solely from my creativeness, and over time the method turned tedious. A summer season images course led by Lewis Watts revived my curiosity within the medium. I shortly realized I may {photograph} what was in entrance of me fairly than spend hours drawing it by hand. The immediacy was inspiring.

Berkeley’s lack of a images program redirected me to an impartial main in American Studies. Fortunately, Professor Watts mentored me by two years of directed images examine whereas I ran the picture lab on campus. My path after commencement took some surprising turns, however my love for images by no means wavered.

©Kerry Mansfield, WILD MOOR POINT HIGHEST & LOWEST TIDE 04.2020, High and low tide photos captured on someday throughout a “Return Location Attempt” at Wild Moor Point. The pictures illustrate the drastic shift in every day tidal ranges and that have been utilized to craft the ensuing TIDAL BLOCK picture.

The Intertidal Project spans greater than eight years. What stored drawing you again to the identical locations, and the way did your relationship with the shoreline evolve over that point?

In 2017, a much-needed trip from metropolis life beckoned me to the close by Sea Ranch coast for rejuvenation. The love affair between the eleven-mile Bluff Trail and me started virtually instantly. My digital camera, nonetheless, remained within the metropolis till 2018. The crashing waves and the sight of water ricocheting by large rocks like a pinball machine ultimately demanded that I {photograph} them, and I started by making easy landscapes of the viewpoints that captivated me.

Initially, returning to the identical locations was a sensible downside. I wasn’t all the time positive the way to discover my favourite spots once more, so I constructed a string map utilizing iPhone GPS metadata. Once I may discover them, I stored returning primarily as a result of I had develop into deeply connected to specific locations. Slowly, repetition revealed that the areas I believed I knew have been by no means fairly the identical. Tides shifted, sand disappeared and returned, rocks have been newly uncovered, and the sunshine utterly altered acquainted views.

A studio transfer required me to construct a brand new string map, however by then I used to be additionally mapping a number of visits to favourite areas. I continued returning with no clear sequence in thoughts, brainstorming and making a whole lot of 1000’s of pictures over the approaching years. What started as an emotional attachment to the shoreline regularly turned a sustained observe of consideration. A deep relationship fashioned between the ocean, rocks, cliffs, and me—and the adjustments I started to acknowledge gave me another excuse to maintain returning.

©Kerry Mansfield, INK TRACE I, Writing in regards to the increasing bond between the Sea Ranch shoreline and me was an natural evolution however an atypical journal wouldn’t enable us to interact in dialog. Multiple materials exams led to ink strewn vellum pages expounding the challenge’s standing whereas mapping our encounters. I washed them within the water sharing my ideas whereas the ocean left its personal imprinted reply.

You write in regards to the distinction between notion and consciousness. How do you distinguish the 2, and the way has images helped you bridge that hole?

For me, notion is what I can see in entrance of me; consciousness consists of what I’ve discovered to acknowledge over time. I understood the distinction throughout a morning stroll after a winter storm had stripped an unlimited quantity of sand from the seashores and pulled it into deeper water.

A fellow hiker stopped to marvel at a seaside crammed with boulders and requested how the waves had carried so many rocks onto the sand. She was shocked after I defined that the other had occurred. The boulders had all the time been there. What was lacking was practically fifteen toes of sand that had beforehand hid them.

The chasm between what I may see and what I knew was putting. After years of returning and photographing the identical areas, I may envision the rocks beneath the sand even after the seaside ultimately returned. Most folks see what is instantly seen, however sustained consideration can reveal an consciousness of what lies beneath their toes.

Photography helped me bridge that hole by accumulation. In 2018, I had requested myself, “How can I show all of the tidal levels in one spot simultaneously?” Two years later, my childhood fascination with a e-book about woodblock printing resurfaced. I started interested by layers of time as an alternative of conventional layers of stamped coloration. That thought ultimately gave me a strategy to assemble a picture from what I had discovered by repeated statement fairly than from a single second of notion.

©Kerry Mansfield, SHADOW TRACE VI, SHADOW TRACE VI at Sea Pine Bluffs emerges from an increasing relationship with the Sea Ranch panorama, the place distant areas known as throughout rocky divides. My shadow—an ever-present companion—perches alongside precarious cliffs, leaving ghost traces in its wake. With every passage, my worn pathways inscribe new layers of reminiscence, accumulating like strata and mapping a stead presence throughout the shifting terrain.

Your pictures usually reveal the buildup of time. What challenges did you face in making time seen by a nonetheless picture?

The biggest problem has been making an attempt to carry the photographic body nonetheless so that point can transfer by it. To reveal change, I must return to the identical location and {photograph} from as near the unique place as doable. GPS coordinates can place me inside roughly six toes, however six toes is a gigantic distance when making an attempt to align photos made years aside.

I work solely handheld. Many of my areas are too near cliff edges or amongst rocks the place utilizing a tripod is impractical, so my physique turns into a part of the measuring equipment. I started utilizing an authentic “feet guide” {photograph} to copy my stance and digital camera place. I typically joke that my completely fused proper wrist makes me a strolling monopod, however even that has its limitations.

When the toes guides proved inadequate, the method expanded into information pictures, spreadsheets, amassed environmental knowledge, eight challenge notebooks, course of binders, and a four-by-six-foot string map monitoring return areas and makes an attempt. Before that framework existed, I spent many days cursing my unmatched outcomes.

In some methods, the trouble is futile. After making multiple million pictures alongside the shoreline, good alignment stays uncommon—though the occasional profitable match has been recognized to encourage a victory lap round my studio. I’ve come to know that the issue of good repetition can also be the place time turns into seen. My techniques are designed to remove variables, but the variations I can not remove—the shifting sand, eroding cliffs, altering rocks, and my very own bodily place—reveal the passage of time.

©Kerry Mansfield, TIDAL STRATA, Curated frames from 32 days of tidal ranges taken over 4 years at Wild Moor Point map the imprinted reminiscences between the rocks, waves, and me. Fascinated with the buildup of time I crafted the TIDAL STRATA image to relay the depth of our expertise collectively and the obsessive efforts behind crafting the TIDAL BLOCK.

The challenge started as an intimate exploration of reminiscence however has develop into more and more involved with local weather change. At what level did you understand the work had taken on a brand new urgency?

Since 2023, colossal winter storms have bodily reshaped this shoreline. At Wild Moor Point, the slender cliff edge from which I photographed for six years collapsed and now lies amongst jumbled rocks roughly 100 toes under.

I sat on the remaining cliff edge with my legs dangling over the aspect, concurrently confronting the lack of a spot I knew intimately and realizing that the that means of my archive had modified. I may not entry a essential vantage level, and the images I had initially made to research notion, reminiscence, and length had develop into proof of a panorama that not existed in the identical kind.

This rupture initiated Losing Ground, the latest chapter of The Intertidal Project. The central query shifted from “How do I show the accumulation of time here?” to “How do I show what used to be here?” The work now brings private reminiscence into direct contact with environmental loss. By combining photos made earlier than and after the storms, I’m exploring how images can register absence—not merely as documentation of harm, however as an expertise of recognition, grief, and altered consciousness

©Kerry Mansfield, TIDAL BLOCK STRATA, To illustrate the tactic honed over 4 years to reply to my preliminary query, “how can I see all the tidal levels at once?”, I made a decision to convey the complexity behind the method of constructing the TIDAL BLOCK. Inspired by my RETURN LOCATION ATTEMPT STRING MAP I integrated the unique Wild Moor Point goal print, and all of the incarnations of tidal ranges used to craft the TIDAL BLOCK exposing the interrelationship between all of the parts.

Can you speak about a number of the extra components you’ve gotten used to develop your concepts?

Photography stays on the heart of the challenge, however over time I spotted a single nonetheless picture couldn’t comprise all the relationships I used to be discovering throughout the archive. Video, sound, three-dimensional items, and handmade books enable me to convey totally different strands of amassed expertise into contact.

In the brief movie Sand Tides at Buddha Beach, pictures made throughout repeated visits dissolve into each other as sand recedes and returns, revealing and concealing the rocks beneath it. The steady sound of the ocean holds the placement collectively whereas its visible state adjustments. Learning software program designed for movie and sound enhancing has develop into important as I seek for new methods to translate these experiences.

In 2026, I additionally started creating a bunch of interwoven handmade books that bodily mix distinct themes throughout the challenge. Earlier, the Tidal Block accordion e-book used rocks and water photographed at totally different instances, echoing the layered development of the childhood woodblock-printing e-book that initially impressed the work. Viewers usually describe shifting by the accordion as an expertise of amassed time.

Ultimately, I envision an immersive exhibition bringing these components along with my challenge notebooks and inscribed vellum journal pages. Each kind permits me to disclose relationships throughout the archive {that a} single {photograph} can not maintain by itself.

©Kerry Mansfield, TIDAL BLOCK WILD MOOR POINT, TIDAL BLOCK emerged from repeated visits to Wild Moor Point, the place tidal circumstances diversified dramatically—white water cresting the tallest rocks someday, practically absent the following. A single {photograph} couldn’t convey this vary. The query turned: how can the complete magnitude of tidal change be seen without delay? To handle this, I developed a technique impressed by Japanese woodblock printing. Rock formations have been organized into “blocks” primarily based on elevation. The tallest rocks are crammed with white water, whereas constantly uncovered areas stay empty. Mid-level rocks are partially crammed, reflecting the shifting intertidal zone—typically submerged, typically revealed. The lowest, sub-tidal rocks are left empty, as they’re hardly ever seen. Created over 4 years from greater than 14,000 frames, TIDAL BLOCK constructs a singular second that might by no means exist—bringing a number of tidal states collectively and revealing the amassed strata of time inside one panorama.

Looking again over practically a decade of this challenge, have been there discoveries that stunned you or modified your authentic intentions?

The biggest shock has been discovering how a lot of the panorama is invisible at any single second. I initially started by finding out tidal ranges, however repeated visits revealed different techniques of change I had by no means meant to doc.

At Buddha Beach, I watched the sand rise and fall by as a lot as fifteen toes over six years. The rocks beneath the seaside have been repeatedly revealed and hid, an expertise that ultimately impressed Sand Tides Strata. More lately, I started recognizing bodily losses inside acquainted rock formations. Comparing present observations with my archive revealed a number of areas the place parts of rock that existed solely years earlier are actually gone. Learning the way to make that absence seen initiated a completely new visible investigation inside Losing Ground.

Constant reconnaissance has develop into essential. A seaside fashioned by an uncommon accumulation of sand has lately returned after a six-year absence. In a canyon behind the shoreline, I encountered newly fallen boulders that have been scary in scale. My work has all the time revolved across the ocean, but my first thought was that they needed to be documented.

The challenge has regularly expanded my authentic intentions. I started by asking the way to present tidal change in a single place. Nearly a decade later, the panorama itself retains revealing what I would like to concentrate to subsequent.

©Kerry Mansfield, DRIED INK TRACE at WILD MOOR POINT, After INK TRACES are retrieved from the water, they’re folded and dried. The ensuing sample of overlapping ink reveals the intersection between my ideas in regards to the challenge in course of and the ocean’s reply at spots visited constantly for years alongside the coastal edge.

Is The Intertidal Project full, or do you see it persevering with to evolve because the panorama itself continues to alter?

I not consider The Intertidal Project as one thing that may attain a standard level of completion. Individual works and chapters could be resolved, however the bigger challenge continues to evolve as a result of the panorama itself continues to be altering.

My challenge notebooks comprise years of initially conceived works that I’ve but to manifest, whereas continued documentation retains producing new questions and visible issues. Increasingly, the panorama is directing the work. A cliff collapses, a rock formation loses materials, or a seaside returns after six years, and my understanding of the archive shifts once more.

I additionally really feel a accountability to proceed documenting even after I don’t but understand how a picture will probably be used. Losing Ground taught me that pictures made years earlier for solely totally different causes can purchase essential significance because the panorama adjustments. I can not assume that I do know, within the current, which photos the long run will make vital.

My dedication to the challenge has not wavered, however my function inside it has modified. I started with questions I wished to ask of the shoreline. Now, extra usually, I discover myself responding to what the shoreline reveals.

©Kerry Mansfield, WILD MOOR POINT FOOT TARGET IN-SITU LOSING GROUND, By documenting the origin 2020 goal print, initially used to mark a set photographic place for Return Location Attempts, is marked and held in place on the web site in 2025 following the collapse of the rock ledge.

Who or what at present conjures up you?

My present obsession is Edward Tufte. During a latest workshop with Todd Hido, Marina Luz acknowledged how important visible expressions of knowledge are to my work. Before I arrived one morning, she positioned a Tufte e-book at my seat. I purchased 4 extra after the workshop.

Tufte’s means to prepare complicated data into visible techniques with out sacrificing readability is extremely inspiring to me. I’ve spent years accumulating an unlimited quantity of visible and environmental data by The Intertidal Project, and more and more I’m interested by how that complexity could be translated with out flattening it. His work has opened one other method for me to think about how data, construction, and visible expertise can coexist.

©Kerry Mansfield, WILD MOOR POINT LOSING GROUND, Combining photographic components from 2019 and a brand new reference {photograph} taken in 2026 the picture reveals the bottom because it beforehand existed coupled with traced outlines derived from the standing of rock ledge seven years later. The markings illustrate rocks that when outlined my standing place at Wild Moor Point, used all through the four-year course of of making the TIDAL BLOCK (accomplished in 2021). Empty areas determine the rock ledge that was misplaced throughout a superstorm in 2023. This picture additionally serves as a structural information for the LOSING GROUND sculptural work at present in progress.

©Kerry Mansfield, SHADOW TRACE VI: LOSING GROUND at SEA PINE BLUFF, Crafted to disclose the numerous rock loss brought on by six years of extreme coastal storms the picture makes use of the identical methodology developed for TIDAL BLOCK II: LOSING GROUND, a 2026 reference {photograph} was traced to mark these shifts at this essential location. The outlined areas are layered onto the unique 2019 {photograph}.

©Kerry Mansfield, TIDAL BLOCK II: LOSING GROUND. Based on the unique TIDAL BLOCK, TIDAL BLOCK II: LOSING GROUND at WILD MOOR POINT reveals the affect of coastal local weather change on the challenge’s major location. Blank areas throughout the giant rock formation signify the dramatic injury inflicted by storms, culminating in 2026.

©Kerry Mansfield, Wild Moor Point Losing Ground Sculpture

©Kerry Mansfield, Wild Moor Point Losing Ground