The Sixth Extinction: Birnbeck Pier, North Somerset. Limited edition #1 of 9. Photograph

The Sixth Extinction: Birnbeck Pier, North Somerset. Birnbeck Island was transformed by the 1607 tsunami and is now joined to the mainland by this pier. Despite multiple attempts at regeneration the pier remains derelict and the island disused. The Sixth Extinction Life on earth has been disrupted by five ‘mass extinction events’, the worst of which wiped out 95% of all life. Current rising carbon dioxide levels and rates of species extinction have led scientists to conclude that the planet is now experiencing a sixth mass extinction event. In 2011 the latest clues to the cause of a mass extinction event brought leading paleogeologists to North Somerset in the UK’s Westcountry. Here the cliffs and foreshores contained an inch-thick layer of rarely-exposed buff-coloured limestone - a layer of the fossil record below which life teemed, but above which most of the planet’s species simply vanished. I followed the team of paleogeologists as they pursued the two hundred million year old mystery. Adopting the same locations, I examined local historical and environmental records, hunting back through the spans of geological time for traces of other extinct ecosystems, transient echoes of the mass extinction. Photographing the residue that remains in the alchemy of the rocks or the shadows of the undergrowth, each image in the project reflects a particular ecosystem ‘die-off’. From the debris of a meteorite strike to the tell-tale traces of lethal sea level fluctuations; from the geomorphic evidence of the UK’s worst natural disaster to the traces of vanished communities and the footprints of Neolithic man. These ecosystems have dissipated to a new strata of dust, awaiting rediscovery by future paleogeologists. Clues to mass extinction events yet to come. Silver gelatin prints on Ilford resin-coated paper (pearl finish). Paper size: 40 x 30 in. Image size: 34 x 25.5 in. Edition of 9 + 2 A/Ps Other eds available:- 24 x 20 in. Image size: 20.2 x 15.1 in