Gulf Update: The Wave

Later in July, BagNews will be presenting a live Salon discussion on the visual coverage of the oil blowout.  One questions we’ll be asking is how well the photos convey the dimension of the disaster.

The way this chocolate wave, captured by Getty photographer Joe Raedle, captures the total presence of oil, so much so that the sea looks less like water than a physical wall, it makes it easy to grasp what has otherwise been a more abstract idea of “how much” and “how bad.”

(caption: A beach goer walks on the beach where oil is seen in the water as it washes ashore from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on June 26, 2010 in Orange Beach, Alabama. Millions of gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf since the April 20 explosion on the drilling platform.)

(photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)