The Fresh Coast Project: Capturing The Great Lakes

Photographer Ed Wargin seeks to archive the ever-changing Great Lakes the best way he sees fit — with traditional camera film.

The Great Lakes are the largest collection of freshwater, by surface, on the Earth. Skirted by 10,000 miles of shoreline, the lakes are flanked by wilderness, urban areas, sand beaches, cliffs and private homes. The countries of Canada and the United States share these important waterways for recreation and commerce. Working to capture the essence of these natural resources, photographer Ed Wargin is creating a volume of photographs on slide film, before digital mediums replace it completely. And perhaps, more importantly—capture the Great Lakes before they change, even if that change is subtle.

Ed Wargin’s childhood home, outside the port of Duluth, was a short distance from Lake Superior. When he became an adult, images of his northern home became more important especially as landscapes had changed over time. Photography gave Ed a tangible way to record the important things, before they were gone.

“I grew up in the Great Lakes, I’ve always felt the connection to it. Long ago, it became my goal to capture the grandeur of the entire Fresh Coast as an artistic, archival, and historical project…but along the way, the project became much more than this. There are historical repercussion to the loss of film. A piece of film is tangible, and provides an indisputable reference,” Wargin writes.

Capturing the Great Lakes region takes time, patience and a bit of luck. We asked Wargin how he determines where he’ll shoot next.

“I typically like to map out the areas that I would like to photograph first. I know once I am out on the road, I will invariably come upon locations that I had no idea even existed and that is when it really gets fun for me. I love the element of surprise. I know that I will be capturing the framework needed for my narrative and the locations that end up surprising me, will be the locations that fill out the rest of my story.”

Included in the photos of The Fresh Coast Project are the many moods of the Great Lakes. From pinkish, lightly rippled waters, to sea grass blanketing a wind-swept beach, it’s hard not to feel like the lakes are presenting their most intimate sides—the ones you see after the tourists have gone home.

Unable to spend much time at each location, Ed Wargin works with the elements, shooting in all sorts of weather. He says, “I don’t subscribe to the notion that everything should look like a postcard. Doing so isn’t true or very indicative of the Great Lakes.” The images are made more alive by fluctuations in the environment.

Wargin hopes that the images will provide a baseline of understanding so that future generations will provide good stewardship and protection for these waterways. He anticipates that the project will wrap up by the end of 2012. After that, he intends to publish a volume of photographs about the project.

Here is a recently posted video documenting his project thus far.