Dana Montlack | Coastal Fragility Series

Coastal Fragility grows out of a deep fascination with the places where Georgia’s coastline rises and recedes each day. In the intertidal zone, oysters build reefs that become habitat, spartina grasses anchor the marsh, and species quietly adapt to tides that are never still. My work draws from marine-biology research and field study, translating those living systems into layered photographic art. It’s an attempt to honor both the beauty and the vulnerability of these ecosystems, and to invite a closer look at how coastal life holds on as the shoreline shifts beneath it.

My sincere thanks to NOAA and UGA Sea Grant, and to the collaborators whose support and expertise informed this work: Dr. Mona Behl (University of Georgia), Dr. Joel Kostka (Georgia Tech), and the Imaging Core Facility at Georgia State University.

See more from this series.

Intertidal #3
Archival pigment print, engraved and submerged metal frame.
14” x 11”
2023

Intertidal #3 is an archival pigment print housed in a custom steel frame engraved with topographic lines and phytoplankton forms, then submerged in a salt marsh for five months to develop its natural patina. The layered image merges sargassum kelp, whelk, spartina roots, and bathymetric mapping, creating a connection between the organisms drifting at the ocean’s surface and the life anchored in the marsh below.