Dora Speck

25/09/2023

The abundance of trees that once existed here as part of the ancient Caledonian Forest helped the mussels survive by shading, and thus cooling, the River Dee and its tributaries. These lower temperatures increased the dissolved oxygen available to Atlantic salmon, in whose gills pearl mussel larvae live as they mature. But deforestation ran rampant here in the mid-19th Century, when Queen Victoria moved to Balmoral and made open, unforested estates fashionable. Trees further disappeared because of fuel needs during the two World War efforts.

"Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved."

20/09/2023

The white-sand beaches of Bleik are linked by a Scenic Route (one of 18 such roads in Norway) that stretches along Andøya’s entire west coast. The island’s southern marshlands are some of the best locations for cloudberry hunting, as are the steep slopes of the mountains in the interior. These include the spectacular Måtinden, which offers views across Andøya.

"Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved."

15/09/2023

Standing outside the boatshed at The Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland & Labrador, on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, I was surprised when Jerome Canning, the museum's boat builder, invited me into his workspace. He was putting the final touches on a Grand Banks Dory, a small fishing vessel that was once found in every protected cove and harbour on this rugged North Atlantic coast.

14/09/2023

Its name literally means "unwritten" in Greek, because when Byzantine scribes first encountered the region they found it too remote to record on their maps, marking it as agrafa – uncharted territory. The Ottomans, too, found the area too inaccessible to control, and so Agrafa became one of the very few areas of Greece that never fell under Ottoman occupation.

The Agrafiots, the resilient, independent-minded inhabitants of this region, used this quasi-independence to cultivate their land into a hub of revolutionary activity. Legendary independence fighter Antonis Katsantonis was born here, and revolutionary leader Georgios Karaiskakis used Agrafa as a base from which to terrorise Ottoman troops down in the plains.

08/06/2023

Were these organic heirloom apples grown in healthy soil? That can make all the difference.

17/05/2023

A pantopod, or sea spider, wanders on top of a hydrothermal vent.

02/05/2023

Photographer Courtney Salmon's project Please Don't Touch celebrates Black British heritage by examining parallels between sneaker culture and "front rooms"—a room typically found in the homes of Caribbean migrants to the U.K, where everything is kept in pristine condition.