Photography and Environmentalism, A History

ART AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

As nature photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum puts it so succinctly on his website: “[I] have always felt ‘compelled’ as an American artist to use [my] imagery, exhibitions, lectures and issue-directed book publishing to address the political realities of habitat protection, natural resource management and preservation of wile lands…” It is the work of wildlife and environmental activist photographers such as Robert Glenn Ketchum and Tom Blagden that has begun to re-couple our society with nature and bring environmental issues into the visual and intellectual conscience of our otherwise detached society.



Here at Oberlin, work like that done in Julia Christensen’s “Advanced New Media: Land Arts in an Electronic Age” is bringing environmental awareness to a new level. One of the focal points of her course this semester was a trip to Gary, IN during which her students saw firsthand the abandoned landscape of a dilapidated steel-based economy. (Above, an image taken by one of her students during their trip.) Final artistic reflections included visual interpretations of land devastation, desertion and de-naturalization, but it was the students' artist statements that most spoke to the affects of the artistic process on increased environmental and landscape awareness. The final art instillations included sculpture, video and photography speaking to the power of seeing what is real: visual, video and tangible relics of an environment devastated by human development. Make sure you check out the blog from her class.

Gary Braasch’s photography very pointedly addresses issue of environmentalism as well. His work focusing on environmentalism, climate change and conservation has been featured in National Geographic magazine, a publication that has been at the forefront of environmental photography since the very beginning.


NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S ROLE IN ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM:

In 1884 first recorded photograph of a tornado was taken becoming the first visual documentation of natural disaster in action. (August 28, 1884, 22 miles SW of Howard, South Dakota.) In National Geographic’s third issue the first photograph of a natural scene was published, a photograph of Herald Island in the Atlantic ocean. This marks the beginning of National Geographic’s prolific history of bringing images of nature into the public eye.

In 1905 National Geographic published a photo essay, for the first time allowing photos to speak for themselves. This collection of photos showed scenes of Lhasa, Tibet, but it is the broader themes of the essay that are most significant—an examination of human interaction with the natural landscape by bringing the visual experience to readers first-hand.

In 1906 the first true wildlife photography was published in National Geographic establishing their now longstanding relationship with nature photography. The magazine published and is continuing to publish work that actively re-couples society with nature battling the perpetual fragmentation of this relationship. Many firsts have marked National Geographic’s career as a publication effectively bringing the natural world back into the American home.

The next big milestone amongst these numerous firsts was in 1946 when images of Earth taken from space were first published. The photos ran in newspaper and magazine publications across the country, for the first time providing human society with an image of our finite earth, bringing to visual consciousness the notion of Earth as a limited resource.


CONTEMPORARY MEDIA, MOVING BEYOND:

Today internet communities continue this work in an ever more accessible manner through online blogs and the like. EarthFirst.com is an online news community that traffics in popular, tabloid style articles with some mission and class. The website talks about real issues while also covering the green work of celebrities and sharing goofier stories as well like one recently about a puppy who was born with his fur tinted green. Here, photos bring readers to what is real showing pictures of beautiful natural scenes, green projects and philanthropist celebrities. BlueEarth.org is a more directed example of the intersection of photography and environmentalism and functions under the motto “photography that makes a difference” speaking to the power of photography to affect change. The historical link between photography and environmental (and social!) activism is being carried through with new technologies while also justifying the environmental ramifications of traditional photography.

Today, digital photography is more popular than traditional photography with one common argument being the environmental benefits of a silver and chemical free process. On the other side of the argument we must consider the realities of sustainability in working with such quickly changing technology. How does buying a new digital camera every few years compare with responsible management of the chemical process? At this point we do not have a way to really measure this, but it is interesting to think about. This and the added value of holding onto a beautiful art form (for us anyways!) justify practicing traditional photography in the greenest way possible.