By Dakota Parks for Inweekly
Viewing the world through photographer Ben Depp’s lens can make the natural landscape feel alien and otherworldly—and that’s exactly the point. For the past decade, Depp has flown up to 10,000 feet above Louisiana’s bayous and wetlands in a powered paraglider, camera in hand, capturing striking images of the region’s rapidly eroding wetlands and vanishing ecosystems. This disorienting aerial perspective draws viewers into the beauty of the remote landscapes and the haunting reality of the climate crisis.
Depp’s latest exhibit, “Rising Tide,” which features his most comprehensive view of South Louisiana to date with 30 prints and two large wall wraps, is currently on view at Pensacola Museum of Art through early April. The show is laid out in two rooms: one depicting the natural beauty of the landscape and the other showcasing human interventions in South Louisiana, including both those that have contributed to its destruction and efforts toward restoration.
“I was initially drawn to photography out of an interest in storytelling and as a means to connect with people and places around the world,” Depp explained. “This work—the solitude of working from a powered paraglider, the beauty of South Louisiana and connecting to the natural world—has also been healing for me personally after many years of working as a photojournalist.”
After studying photography in college and living in his car to pursue a photography career debt-free, Depp was drawn into the fast-paced and emotionally turbulent world of documenting disasters. He cut his teeth working for newspapers, freelancing for magazines and nonprofits across a number of countries before a five-year stay in Haiti shifted his focus to environmental issues. There, he covered the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, the cholera epidemic and political unrest.
When Depp moved to New Orleans in 2013, he set out to document Louisiana’s coast, the largest U.S. wetland and the fastest-eroding coastline. Over the past 80 years, Louisiana has lost 2,000 square miles of wetlands due to factors like rising sea levels, oil and gas development and the engineering of levees, dams and canals which prevent sediment from replenishing the land. These wetlands, which provide a critical buffer against hurricanes and storm surges, protect 70 percent of the state’s population.
“Louisiana’s wetlands support huge fisheries, provide homes to people and untold numbers of birds and animals, play a vital role in bird migrations and much more. The loss of this ecosystem also represents the beginning of the kind of climate chaos impacts that will radically alter life on this planet,” Depp said. “I hope my work raises the profile of this issue. Most of Louisiana’s wetlands will erode no matter what interventions are made, but some areas can likely still be protected. I hope that humans can still make the changes necessary to avoid the worst climate change impacts.”
Depp’s photos are as much a call to action as they are an act of documentation. As a resident of New Orleans, just a short distance from the Mississippi River and the eroding wetlands, Depp has witnessed the impacts of climate change firsthand.
“Living here made me keenly aware of how quickly climate change impacts are setting in,” he noted. “Our streets flood more often than they used to. We have more intense heat waves and drought. It seems that we are getting a ‘500-year’ or ‘thousand-year’ level storm every few years. Homeowners insurance has become nearly unaffordable. Extensive wetlands used to protect South Louisiana from the impact of hurricanes. We are rapidly losing that buffer.”
The inspiration for Depp’s aerial photography struck during a commercial flight above New Orleans, where the view from above revealed the intricate details of the wetlands. Determined to capture this perspective, Depp learned to fly a powered paraglider, embracing the unique vantage point it provided.
“South Louisiana is flat, so to get any perspective on the landscape, it helps to be able to get off the ground,” he said. “A powered paraglider is maybe the world’s smallest aircraft. I wear a motor on my back with a propeller on it and have a paraglider wing overhead. Each flight is still exhilarating and often a little terrifying. I love being airborne a few hundred feet over the wetlands at sunrise and watching the colors change in the marsh as the sun comes up. By flying low and slow, I can see all the textures and detail in the grasses, flowers and trees below me.”
Depp’s images are rich in color and texture, depicting retreating shorelines, migratory birds flocked in abstract shapes, decaying oak trees with fishing lines wrapped in their branches, sunken ships and the swirling contrast of water and marsh grass blowing in the wind.
“For viewers of my photographs, the aerial perspective is disorienting,” Depp said. “This abstraction creates a sense of otherworldliness. I want viewers to be forced to really examine my photographs as they question what they are seeing. This draws them into the landscape in a way that they would not be otherwise.”
While his artistic process embraces spontaneity, Depp’s years of immersion in the landscape have sharpened his ability to capture its story.
“I try to stay very open-minded about what is important enough to photograph,” he said. “Coming from a photojournalistic background, I used to have more rigid ideas about what was worth documenting in a photograph. This perspective prevented me from photographing a patch of grass or ripples in the water. But, slowly, after spending years in this landscape, I came to view each blade of grass as part of the story of this place. Although I’ve been a photographer for almost 20 years, I’ve found my photographic voice through this project. The photographs I now make reflect my increased connection and sensitivity to this place.”
This method of aerial photography is not without its challenges, however. Weather conditions—such as thunderstorms, wind speed and wind direction—can keep Depp grounded for days at a time as he camps along remote stretches of Southern Louisiana. After years of exploring accessible parts of the coast, Depp built a 19-foot wooden sailboat to reach Louisiana’s barrier islands, allowing him to pack and transport the paraglider to more remote locations.
“Because I am usually in remote areas, I carry a GPS spot beacon in case I need to call for a rescue. Hopefully I’ll never need it,” he added. “The spot beacon also allows me to send GPS coordinates to my wife while I’m flying, which I sometimes remember to do. I wear an inflatable personal flotation device because I’m often flying over water. When it’s cold I wear a drysuit. I’m always aware of how far I am from dry land and navigable water. I also carry a reserve parachute with me.”
Despite the grim reality of the wetlands’ erosion, Depp remains hopeful. He has witnessed the migration of land as the Mississippi River has begun to create new land in certain areas, offering a glimmer of hope for the future. His work, especially his book “Tide Lines: A Photographic Record of Louisiana’s Disappearing Coast,” seeks to raise awareness of these issues and inspire action before it’s too late.
“Over the past decade, there has been a steady stream of inland migration, both of people and land. I’ve seen several small coastal communities mostly disappear. I’m seeing beaches across the coast retreat inland,” he said. “It has also been exciting to watch a few places on the lower Mississippi River where the river is building new land. This gives me hope that parts of this coast can regenerate and survive into the future.”
This fragile balance between destruction and renewal is central to Depp’s work. His photographs reveal the haunting interplay of beauty and devastation that defines South Louisiana’s landscape and serves as a stark reminder to all coastal communities of the looming threat of climate change.
“The wetlands that remain in Louisiana provide a glimpse of what used to exist here. I don’t have to work very hard to capture both the beauty and the destruction of this place, because the beauty and destruction coexist. There is no part of South Louisiana untouched by human enterprise—oil wells, canals, abandoned industrial infrastructure. Although I strive to make interesting photographs, in some ways I am simply just capturing what I see, and what I see is the slow degradation of a hauntingly beautiful landscape.”
Rising Tide: Photography by Ben Depp
WHAT: An exhibition featuring aerial photography of the rapidly changing coastline of Southern Louisiana
WHEN: On display now through Friday, April 4
WHERE: Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 S. Jefferson St.
DETAILS: pensacolamuseum.org
Depp will give an artist talk and sign books at the museum on Friday, April 4 at 6 p.m. To explore more of his work, visit bendepp.com or follow him on Instagram @deppphoto or Bluesky @bendepp.