Photo Essay with 80 B&W Photographs depicting the obvious day-to-day scenes and events as well as the more unusual aspects of the salt marsh and it’s ecosystem. This project records on film Randy’s visual interpretation of the Barrier Beaches, Creeks, Dunes, Estuaries, Grasses, Rivers, Uplands and Wildlife that make up the Great Salt Marsh.

Randy Radke makes his home with his wife Bonnie in the historic seaport town of Newburyport, MA. He has been actively involved in photography for over 30 years, and has lived, photographed and traveled throughout Europe (where his youngest daughter Dylana was born in Germany) and the Caribbean (where Randy graduated from high school in Puerto Rico).

He is primarily self-taught in photography except for spending a couple of semesters at The Texas Center for Photographic Studies in Dallas, Texas (where his older daughter Zebrina was born). He was greatly influenced by Ben Breard, owner/director of the Afterimage Gallery, an art gallery devoted exclusively to photography. Ben, through his gallery, inspired Randy to be more purposeful and passionate about photography.

Randy has an obsession with marine photography that is constantly refreshed by the changing smells, sounds, tides, weather and seasons surrounding his New England home, especially in the salt marshes. His direct visual encounter of this ecosystem motivated him to document his own personal view of the salt marsh starting in the summer of 1999 as a 2 year project to produce a photographic essay on the "SALTMARSHES of Northern Essex County"

Bonnie cuts his mats, mounts and frames his prints with quality acid-free materials, while Zebrina designed and hosts his websites. Randy is a member of the Newburyport Art Association (NAA) and Arthur Griffin Center for Photographic Art. His photographs have been accepted and awarded in juried exhibitions. He has exhibited and sold his work in Massachusetts and Maine.