Had told you of the possibly of pink lakes, once before, mentioning a rather famous one in Senegal; and then, last week, wandered across another of these spectacular phenomena, this time, in Australia . . .
Architectural and interiors photographer, Steve Back’s, Terra Incognita (unknown land), is a series of aerial landscapes collected over the course of three years, in Western and South Australia. Taken without the usual references to land and sky, the un-edited photographs resemble abstract paintings, rather than landscape photographs . . .
The stunning pink and red-hued shots are from the photographer’s ‘Pink Lakes’ series, taken on the foreshore of Hutt Lagoon in Western Australia; the Lagoon is a salt lake with a large population of Dunaliella salina algae, giving it that distinctive red and pink coloration. To survive, these organisms have high concentrations of β-carotene to protect against the intense light, and high concentrations of glycerol for protection against osmotic pressure. Hutt Lagoon is currently used as a Dunaliella salina algae farm, making it one of the largest micro algae production plants in the world. The pink pigment is harvested for use as food colouring in cosmetics and as a source of Vitamin A in health supplements.
‟The cognitive dissonance created by this juxtaposition of the known and unknown invites the viewer to explore their own internal landscape; seemingly familiar, yet on closer inspection often mysterious, surprising and unexplored.”
