Beate Sass - At the Intersection of Wind, Sand, and Sea
All the elements of wind, water, and earth collided in a unique way, in this exact spot, to create beautiful, abstract, and seemingly unearthly patterns in the sand.
At the Intersection of Wind, Sand, and Sea
Beate Sass
Little St. Simon’s Island is a privately-owned, barrier island off the coast of Georgia. I visited with my family in October 2019 after Hurricane Dorian had struck the month before. As I was leaving the beach the afternoon before our departure, I looked down and noticed fantastical patterns embedded in the sand. Hurricane Dorian had transported dark sand from the northern part of the island and deposited it where I stood. The dark sand was swirled together with light-colored sand. Embedded within these sand paintings were bits of shell and other organic matter. All the elements of wind, water, and earth collided in a unique way, in this exact spot, to create beautiful, abstract, and seemingly unearthly patterns in the sand.
Beate Sass is a writer and self-taught photographer whose fascination with people and storytelling has been shaped by her childhood experiences traveling and living abroad, and as a mother and advocate of a daughter who experiences disability. Beate utilizes the powerful and visual aspect of photography in combination with the written word, to highlight and amplify the voices of those who are often overlooked.
Beate’s work has been featured in solo and joint exhibitions in the Southeast region including The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Southeast Museum of Photography, in Deltona Florida. Her portfolios have been published in Lenswork, Oxford America, and South x Southeast Photomagazine. Beate has found creative solutions for elevating the impact of her work and making it accessible to broad and diverse audiences. In 2016, her project, Real Stories, Real People, was printed in a tabloid format and distributed to Georgia Legislators and local libraries. In 2017, a large-scale installation of her I am Decatur portraits and accompanying stories were displayed on the downtown bandstand, in the City of Decatur.