Algas is a sister project of Spinning Away, the culmination of my days (2023-2024) spent on the northern coast of Portugal collaborating with the sun, wind, water, and earth. Twice a week, between late spring and early fall, I visited the same beaches to forage algae and capture their movement using the cyanotype photographic process. I followed tide charts and wind patterns to find optimal days to forage, make exposures outdoors, and develop prints in the sea. This practice was just as much for my mental health as it was an art form—by de-centering myself I was better able to see other life forms with reverence. Through this ritual, I observed the cyclical movement of the sea and cyclical human-environmental interactions that result in water/coastal pollution, environmental exploitation and resilience, and human diversion.

Algas shifts focus from documentation to capturing the essence of movement and transformation in marine flora. Rather than categorizing the algae I foraged, I sought to express their ephemeral dances in water, evoking their transient beauty. I diverged from taxonomy to embrace a more fluid, poetic dialogue with the natural world—a nod to Anna Atkins and the first photographically printed and illustrated book, British Algae, composed entirely of cyanotypes. It is a meditation on interconnectedness, impermanence, and the shared cycles of human life and environment.