On an evening last June, in Amagansett, NY while my family fished, I walked down the beach and photographed all of the Mylar balloons that I found washed up after a storm.

The faded images and texts on their surfaces remind me of their significance as symbols of the often frivolous, commercial side of human celebration. Their location in this beautiful natural environment reminds me of our responsibility to think about the long-term consequences of our actions.

The morning storm may have brought them in, or the prevailing winds, or the tidal currents that rise and fall as the Atlantic pushes up against the outwash plains of the south shore of Long Island. On this particular evening, these Mylar balloons littered a quarter mile stretch of beach.

The next day they were mostly gone.