I took this image during a visit to the Pacora mangrove forest off the Pacific coast of Panamá during a natural producst research collection trip. I was following biotech scientists who looking for fungi in leaves on this edge of the isthmus since it harbors a unique environment - wooded wetlands thriving under pulsating tides. As we walked towards an old-growth mangrove forest I was taken aback by the levels of plastic an other refuse in what was supposed to be a protected conservation area. Mesmerized by the littoral and the in-betwen of land and sea and how contaminated this particular space was, I began to reflect on all the traces of human activity present and how they showed externalities of systems of overproduction and overconsumption. In this ecotone, or space where terrestrial and aquatic bioglogies meet, multiple sites combine and, as the images in this photoessay reveal, various toxic agencies appear enmeshed with one another.
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