Photographer Bobby Moon of Los, Gatos, Calif., spent Eight Days in the Gulf last month to highlight what was happening in the region six months after the Gulf oil disaster.

Moon, whose other projects can be found here, and Frank Brightwell offered these insights on the final day of their tour of the Gulf coast, Day Eight (Oct. 25), which was spent where they began — in and around Gulfport, Miss.:

“On our way from town to the airport we took a final swing by the beach. A clean-up crew, antiseptically wrapped in protective garb, was busy wiping rock after rock with appeared to be large paper towels. Beyond them floated the now familiar yellow booms. There had to be at least two dozen of the workers, all busy cleaning the oil—or not cleaning it, depending on who you believed.

“The people we encountered every day for the past Eight Days had been extraordinarily gracious with us, often opening their lives to us and sharing with us their hopes and dreams and fears. We had traversed a large area and along the way found many communities still trying to recover from a storm whose fury most of us will never appreciate. We learned of the love of fishermen for their work, their boats and the water. And we discovered the culture of the oil workers, men and women who sometimes give their lives, as eleven of them did on April 20, so that we can fuel our cars.

“We witnessed oil on beaches and saw the undeniable aftermath of the man-made storm. Regardless of point of view, the oil spill has been a major event in the lives of these proud people. People are waiting, as if for a good storm. They wait for some semblance of order, for a rebirth, for healing. Mostly they wait for answers and for truth.”

Visit Bobby Moon’s photography Web site with several interesting projects.

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Image by Bobby Moon.  Not for republication.  Used by permission.