Between 2005 and 2018, Alex MacLean photographed the American East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico from his Cessna, observing shorelines shaped by rising seas, seasonal conditions, and major weather events. Impact: The Effect of Climate Change on Coastlines gathers this sustained aerial record into a study of climate change at the point where land, water, settlement, and commerce meet.

MacLean’s large-format aerial photography supplies both distance and precision. Seen from above, coastal geography becomes legible as a system: natural formations sit alongside built environments, while changes in the contours and use of the land reveal ecological, commercial, and social consequences. The elevated viewpoint does not turn the subject into abstraction. Rather, it clarifies relationships that are difficult to grasp at ground level and places human occupation within a visibly unstable terrain.

The book’s argument is grounded in comparison. Images made during different seasons, and before and after severe weather, register the alteration of landscape over time. Its regional concentration gives concrete form to an issue of worldwide consequence: sea-level rise appears here not as a remote projection, but as a force already acting upon recognizable environments. The long period of observation also allows gradual transformation and sudden disruption to be considered within the same photographic framework.

Published by Birkhäuser in 2020, this first-edition hardcover extends across 336 pages. For collections centered on aerial photography, environmental representation, or the changing American landscape, its significance lies in the conjunction of sustained fieldwork and a clearly defined geographic subject. MacLean’s images function as composed photographs and as a dated record of vulnerable coastlines, making the volume pertinent to both photographic history and the visual culture of climate change.