After the Storm is a series of collages and digital prints produced from free public service and advertising ephemera available on Captiva, a barrier island on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The island's economy is dependent on luxury home sales, shelling and fishing tourism and winter holiday rentals. Marketed and sold as a vacation paradise, it has a politically entrenched regional politics of climate change denial that anecdotally reaches deeply into local governance, although not to every agency and organization.
Captiva was temporarily cut in two in 2004 by Hurricane Charley and dramatically damaged in 2022 by Hurricane Ian. In the near future (2050-2100), the island is expected to experience increased storm, hurricane, and king tide flood events, and in longer timescales may be uninhabitable owing to sea level rise.
Reflecting on the complexities and contradictions of local attitudes, materials include the Lee County (Florida) All-Hazards Guide, produced by county emergency responders (including a including practical resources for emergency preparation and recommendations for coping with trauma after a disaster), real estate brochures, a guide to mollusks (collecting is best after a storm), information about ‘pelagic tar’ balls, and a report about forecasting ‘ecosystem services’ within Pine Island Sound.
