LAM announces Our Ocean’s Edge exhibition of photos by Jasmine Swope

On Sunday, Oct 11, Laguna Art Museum will open Our Ocean’s Edge, an exhibition of photographs exploring incredible coast of California. The exhibition will be on view during Art & Nature, the museum’s annual exploration of art’s engagements with the natural world, in November, continuing through January 10, 2021.

Exploring California’s 1,100-mile-long coastline through photography and prose, Our Ocean’s Edge features black and white images from Los Angeles-based photographer Jasmine Swope’s quest to capture the essence of California’s marine parks. Accompanying the images, author Dwight Holing’s prose contributes narrative interpretations of otherworldly landscapes.

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Submitted photo

Jasmine Swope, El Matador State Beach, Point Dume State Marine Conservation Area, Los Angeles County

California made history with the creation of the nation’s first statewide system of ocean parks – a network of 124 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) stretching from Oregon to Mexico. Like national parks on land, MPAs are magnificent in beauty and wildness while providing protection for wildlife, solutions to climate change, and recreational resources. Our Ocean’s Edge is a photographic documentary project that celebrates these fragile seascapes, from Southern to Northern California, while increasing awareness about their natural benefits and promoting ecological conservation.

Jasmine Swope is a Serbian-born American photographer based in Santa Monica. A graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography and former commercial advertising photographer in Los Angeles and London, Swope specializes in creating large-format black and white photographs that capture the human experience with nature. Swope’s work includes critically-acclaimed collections on coastal parks, the Salton Sea, and the Colorado River. 

Dwight Holing is a San Francisco-based author specializing in natural history, conservation, and marine issues. His nonfiction books have been published by University of California Press, Random House, and Macmillan, and his articles on environmental topics have appeared in Audubon, Discover, Los Angeles Times, Outside, and San Francisco Chronicle. He has produced special projects for leading conservation groups and foundations. His award-winning short fiction and essays have been published in books and leading literary journals. 

For more information, visit www.dwightholing.com.   

Our Ocean’s Edge is originated by photographer Jasmine Swope and author Dwight Holing. The following people and organizations helped make this project possible: League for Coastal Protection, Resource Legacy Fund, Wishtoyo Foundation, Kaitlin Gaffney, Karen Garrison, Annie Notthoff, Chris Pichler, Mark Swope, and Mati Waiya. Our Ocean’s Edge is traveled by Exhibit Envoy.

Exhibit Envoy provides traveling exhibitions and professional services to museums throughout California. Exhibit Envoy’s mission is to build new perspectives among Californians, create innovative exhibitions and solutions, and advance institutions in service to their communities.

For more information on Laguna Art Museum, visit www.lagunaartmuseum.org.

Laguna Art Museum is located at 307 Cliff Dr.