Fort Myers Beach, Florida
December 18, 2025
© Rick Kollmeyer
On September 28, 2022, Category 4 Hurricane Ian brought catastrophic destruction to Southwest Florida. The storm’s path put the Fort Myers Beach in the right-front quadrant, where the tidal surge, wind and rain was at its worst. Ian ultimately caused 161 deaths and roughly $112 billion in damage.
Three years later, I was still seeing the widespread destruction to the region and to the families who had lost everything. One thing that was hard to miss in the middle of it all, yet slightly out of reach, was the remains of the fishing pier.
Nothing but the concrete pilings remained. They were a testament to the strength of the original construction, but also a symbol of the resilience of the people whose homes and businesses had been destroyed.
I knew I wanted to photograph it. I just couldn’t figure out how.
I’m drawn to cloudy and foggy scenes, so when I saw that several mornings were expected to bring dense fog, I knew the conditions might finally be right.
The first morning, I walked all over the area, photographing the pilings from both sides and straight on. I wasn’t really looking for the photograph yet. I was trying to understand the possibilities—the angles, the spacing and how the pilings lined up.
The next morning, I came back.
I knew I wanted a slower shutter speed to smooth the water, so I set up the tripod and started shooting. I got some good photographs, but the more I looked at them, the more I noticed subtle differences in how the pilings aligned. A few degrees in either direction changed the photograph. So did how wide I shot.
Eventually, I settled on a few possible setups.
Now I just needed the weather to cooperate one more time.
Fortunately, it did.
On the third morning, I knew exactly where I wanted to be. I still took a few hundred photographs as the fog came and went, giving me everything from almost complete obscurity to just a hint of fog.
After going through them, I settled on this one.
The pier is gone, and much of what was there before Ian is gone with it. But the pilings remain, standing in the water much as they did before the storm. For me, they have become a reminder of what was lost, but also of the strength of the people who are still there, working to rebuild what Ian took from them.
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