Inauspicious signs for the beginning of a journey. At the beginning of July, I gained access to the Portland Harbor area via the Swan Island boat ramp. It didn’t seem very intuitive to me that there might be a recreational launching point in the middle of what I always perceived to be a heavy industrial area, but there it was, a long non-descript boat ramp angling into the water at the tail end of long rectangular un-natural looking bay, a body of water perhaps designed to provide comprehensive access to Port of Portland dry docks or perhaps merely the ex-channel that once, presumably, gave Swan Island the right to be defined as an island. At the tiny beach end of the rectangle in a dirty crescent of sand, pregnant women cast their fishing lines into the water as they lounged in cheap folding chairs and watched their young children splashing in the water, and playing with plastic detritus. Editors note: In response to reader commentary, we are providing the alternate se...
a photographer's take on ART, SCIENCE & THEOLOGY in the Pacific Northwest