Invisible Carbon –50 miles of carbon captures

Photographic exhibition highlights the importance of the county’s coastline for the climate.

The Invisible Carbon photography project lasted for six months and was aimed at capturing the beauty and importance of the salt marshes found along the Lincolnshire coastline. This salt marsh coastline is known to be highly productive when it comes to the capture of carbon from the atmosphere. In fact, the salt marshes that are spread out from Cleethorpes to the Wash below Boston are considered to be even more efficacious in carbon capture than rainforests themselves. This is due to their unique ability to capture carbon quickly, store it for long periods, and even serve as natural flood defences. By helping to protect coastlines from erosion, these habitats allow for carbon sequestration and storage, ultimately reducing the severity and impact of climate change.

The success of this project would demonstrate the importance of salt marsh restoration and encourage policymakers to prioritise the preservation and creation of similar habitats. Investing efforts into the conservation of salt marshes not only benefits climate but supports wildlife, insect and plant life and our own well-being. By working to maintain and enhance these crucial habitats, we can achieve a sustainable balance between human development and the protection of our natural environment. This project won an award from the St Hugh’s Foundation for the Arts and is supported by Epson UK.

About the artist
Stephen Robert Thornton makes visually stunning and emotionally evocative environmental landscapes, still life and portrait images, using natural light, strobes and geometric compositions to create eyewitness images deeply rooted in the natural world.

What’s next
Although Stephen Robert Thornton’s previous exhibitions have been projects with a documentary narrative, the next will exhibit his own conceptual colour version of nature’s natural evolution of camouflage.

Photographs: Stephen Robert Thornton

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