Photographing An Island™
A Van Lieu Photography Blog

Slide show of Erosion on Sconset Bluff

There has been more flooding, high winds and damaging tides along the bluff that have resulted in more of the bluff falling to the beach below. We put together a slide show you can see by clicking on the photo below or following this linK: Click for Slide Show

Dear Dirck and Sharon,
Thank you for capturing a very difficult subject with passion and acute observation. It is very challenging to view your wonderful photographs given the juxtaposition of the brooding power of nature and the threads of human condition affected. Successful moreover by the absence of people.

Thank you William. Photographing the bluff is at once exhilarating and troubling, as it is a much-loved place suffering a dramatic destruction. We love the ocean and the wild weather, but are sorry to see the price to be paid when they come ashore together.

Dirck and Sharon- My grandfather had this house built by John Santos in 1950 when there was at least 1/4 of a mile from the edge of the bluff to the ocean. It is difficult to look at your pictures after so many happy summers in “Eastward”, it’s former name, but I compliment you on your work, which so artistically captures the ephemerality (word?) of man’s imprint and the awesome majesty of Mother Nature.

Eric,

Thank you for your very kind words on a difficult subject. I think that you know what we felt when shooting on those stormy days.

Some years ago I helped my father John Van Lieu build a house for the Roosevelts across Baxter from Eastward, and I had a nodding acquaintance with Herb Gutterson, your grandfather? A man with a ready smile and greeting. I always liked to see him.

Eastward/Swept Away is being moved about 20′ toward the road, perhaps adding one more summer to its history. We can’t imagine what the near future holds for the bluff. It’s a place that I have considered special for nearly 45 years and its ephemerality (if it ain’t, it oughtta be!) is something I would like to deny. I’ll have no more luck than the sand.