Gulf Update: Oil Paintings

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

It’s fascinating to watch the themes come and go in the photo coverage of the oil blowout.

If AP’s Charlie Riedel led the charge two weeks ago with heartbreaking photos of oil encased birds, what I noticed emerging end of last week (the visual media desperate for newer angles, perhaps?) were more and more photos of the effects as … beautiful.

(caption: Oil clouds the surface of Barataria Bay June 19, 2010 near Port Sulpher, Louisiana. The BP oil spill has been called one of the largest environmental disasters in American history.)