This project started as a joke. I was helping an oyster farmer with their social media and marketing, when the idea of “Oyster Trading Cards” popped into my head. When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards. I thought it would be fun to do something like this for the simple oyster.

“SIMPLE OYSTER,” you exclaim,  “After all the oyster does for the environment, and be a nutrient rich meal too, you DARE call it simple!? Harumph.”

Please accept my apology for sounding naive. I know the oyster is the stuff of myth and legend throughout human history. In it’s modest home, it has moved in the swankiest of circles, and improved the environment at the same time.

I’m impressed by how unique and beautiful each oyster can me. The part usually lying on the bed of ice when it comes to you is an elegant, honest document of growth and nature. I photographed oysters that caught my eye. I gave them cheeky names at first, as a nod to the whole aphrodisiac thing. I thought it was hilarious, but the general New England public, not so much.

Oysters are powerful filtration devices, with each adult oyster cleaning up to 50 gallons of water every day. For a while, they were the food that fed the masses, until it got fancy to eat them. Poems, songs, paintings, and books have been created about them.

Simple things can contain a universe. These oysters are no exception. The way the shell has grown reflects how it has adapted to the environment. A small ecosystem can live on the shell. The brackish bodies of water where they thrive are changed for the better because of the oysters simple existence.

While no single oyster can change the world, when gathered together, wonderful things happen. So, consider the oyster as a touchstone for what is possible in your life.