Cris Benton captures San Francisco's South Bay salt ponds and marshes in various states of restoration using kite aerial photography.

1. Saltscapes:
The Kite
Aerial Photography
of Cris Benton
An interview with Cris Benton

2. Acclaimed by Hey Day Books as “exuberant, otherworldly”,
Cris Benton captures South Bay salt ponds and marshes in
various states of restoration.
“The intimate views afforded by Cris’s kite photography
wonderfully portray the essence of the landscape and convey
both the beauty and the scale of the largest tidal wetland
restoration project on the West Coast.”
— John Bourgeois, executive project manager,
South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project

4. Can you describe a little bit about the methods involved in
kite aerial photography (KAP)?
Cris Benton: The idea is to lift a camera from somewhere around head
height to altitudes of up to 400 ft above the ground. You launch the kite and
fly it up to steady air.
After the kite reaches steady air, you fly it for about 10 minutes to satisfy
yourself that the wind is reliable and the kite is performing well. And then,
while the kite flies above, you attach a little string and pulley suspension to
the kite line. To the pulley system, you attach the camera, which is held in a
small robotic cradle.
Using radio control the cradle can point the camera in any compass
direction, tilt it from the horizon to straight down, and with the flip of a
switch change from portrait to landscape format. The radio control also
fires the camera when you want to take the photograph.

6. Can you see what the camera sees?
Cris Benton: In theory, yes. Being gadget prone I had fun making systems
to show real time video which were transmitted to an electronic viewfinder;
but, I found that I never used them.
In large part this is because what I really enjoy is watching the camera,
imagining being there, thinking about the field of view the camera enjoys
from 100 feet or 200 feet above the Earth.
As I compose the image in absentia, it involves forming a visual hypothesis.
Later, when I get the photograph back, I get to compare my mind’s eye view
with what the camera captured.

8. How do you think kite-aerial photography could
help conservation practitioners with either restoration
or land stewardship work?
Cris Benton: You could document site conditions before and after interventions
such as attempts to control non-native vegetation. You could document a
transitional landscape at regular intervals, say yearly, to gauge change over
time as might occur after a creek restoration or the breaching of salt pond
levees. Since you are in the field with the aerial camera, you can have a broader
“ground truth” view.

10. How did you come to establish a relationship with Cargill?
Cris Benton: My South Bay photography began during a stint as Artistin-Residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. There I collaborated
with a microbiologist to document several sites along the edge of San
Francisco Bay. From these the salt ponds emerged as particularly
interesting and I was fortunate to get permits from the Don Edwards
National Wildlife Refuge and California Fish & Wildlife to expand my
South Bay photography.
After a few years I had covered much of the refuge holdings and was eager
to photograph the neighboring Cargill operations to complete my South
Bay portfolio. Happily, the refuge had a close working relationship with
Cargill. They provided introductions that led to discussions with managers
at Cargill Salt and eventually permission to photograph. My relationship
with Cargill has been an extraordinary source of knowledge about the
South Bay and welcome encouragement for my work. We share an
affection for the landscape and its history.

12. Why were you interested in completing such
a large photography project of the South Bay landscape?
Cris Benton: When I started to photograph the South Bay landscape I realized
there were layers in the images, very much like layers of architectural tracing
paper. As a professor of architecture, this similarity drew me in. In the layers
one sees tracings of cultural geography and the presence of wildlife. Flood
control projects and infrastructure crisscrossing the landscape appear as other
layers. It became an interesting project to try to decipher and document the
landscape.
I used the photography to document changes in the landscape during the
South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project as they occur year to year. While at
the same time one of my favorite South Bay subjects for aerial photography are
traces of old salt works that date back to the 19th Century, for in our day these
traces are becoming quite dim. It’s just fun to capture these fading geometries
as a reading of the place and its history.

14. How do you think the restoration of these wetlands
will impact or add value for coming generations?
Cris Benton: The Bay Area is such an interesting place for its juxaposition
of dense urban culture to large tracts of adjacent open space. Our open
space, and the connections to nature it affords, provides a relief valve of
sorts by allowing escape from the city bustle through hikes or even just a
distant vista.
The bay and its wetlands serve as a geographic and spiritual centerpiece
of our open space system. They buffer our connection to the ocean with
the fecund richness common to all healthy estuaries.
Here marine life prospers and courtesy of the Pacific Flyway we witness
annual cycles of avian migration. Restoring the wetlands – the “wild heart
of San Francisco Bay” – preserves this natural centerpiece for our progeny
while providing the practical benefits of recreation and flood control.

16. About the Author
Cris Benton is a retired professor of architecture and former department
chair at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was engaged in
teaching and research in the Building Science Laboratory as well as a
program of post-occupancy building case studies.
His kite aerial photography in the South Bay began during a sabbatical
year spent as artist in residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and
it has continued under special use permits from the Don Edwards National
Wildlife Refuge and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The resulting images documenting the salt ponds have been shown at the
Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Exploratorium, and the Coyote Point Museum,
as well as conferences and art galleries. Benton’s aerial images have been
used by over one hundred nonprofit agencies.

17. To purchase Saltscapes visit:
heydaybooks.com/book/saltscapes/