About the project.
Every photograph in Venice was staged on location along the beaches of Venice, California. Costumes, props and practical effects were created specifically for each image. The figures were photographed in the surf under changing weather conditions, allowing the Pacific Ocean itself to become both setting and collaborator.

The story.
Although separated by thousands of miles, both exist in a fragile relationship with water. Sixteen years ago I began imagining a future in which the two cities had quietly become the same place. Rather than depicting catastrophe, I became interested in what comes after it.

In these photographs, the ocean has already arrived. The extraordinary has become ordinary. People continue to sweep, read, play, work, dance, carry groceries, tend to one another and search for beauty, even as the sea has reclaimed the landscape around them.

The figures are neither heroes nor victims. They are simply people adapting to a world they can no longer change.
Each photograph was created on the beaches of Venice, California, using costumes, props and practical effects rather than digital fabrication. The vast horizon, the muted palette and the disproportionate scale between the figures and the sky emphasize both the insignificance and resilience of human life.

Seen from a distance, the people almost disappear. Only by moving closer does each small story begin to emerge.
When this series was first exhibited, it was largely understood as surreal fiction. As the years have passed, the work has gradually become less speculative. Rising seas, increasingly severe coastal flooding and a changing climate have altered the way these images are read.

The photographs themselves have not changed.

The world around them has.
Venice is ultimately less about disaster than about endurance. It imagines a future in which daily rituals persist, dignity survives, and ordinary life continues at the water’s edge, even after the shoreline has disappeared.