Chris Jordan– Midway

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch within the North Pacific Gyre, is now twice the size of Texas, and still many people are not yet aware of it. The patch is a result of marine pollution such as dumping from large ships, as well as every day litter on beaches and coast. But most of it, believe it or not, is garbage that has been blown by wind off of land. In fact, an estimated 80% of the garbage in the patch comes from land based sources, whereas only 20% comes from ships. What exactly is in the patch? Plastic. The answer is always plastic. Plastic is a synthetic material invented by man that never degrades. Some love it just for that reason.

Unfortunately, this is plastic’s biggest fault. Our culture of disposable plastics like bottled water, packaging, grocery bags, single serving containers, etc. has not yet replaced “real plastic” with green biodegradable versions. Plastic does not biodegrade, it just photo degrades, meaning that it breaks down visually until it becomes so small and invisible while still maintaining its toxic molecular structure that it makes its way into the food source of the smallest of aquatic organisms– plankton. The key to life in the oceans. Plankton is the most abundant life form on earth, and now in the plastic gyre, it is found only 1 to each 7 pieces of floating plastic.

This isn’t the only organism to ingest our plastic waste– sea turtles, fish, jelly fish, and others– are all known to have mistaken brightly colored bits of plastic as food. Not only is the plastic non-ingestible and can do all sorts of harm to their stomachs and throats (imagine swallowing a frisbee every day), but plastic contains a host of toxic chemicals like cancer causing BPA (bisphenol A) and Polysterene (which contains poisons like flame retardants and benzene, known carcinogens). The plastic also absorbs other organic pollutants in the water like DDT (the banned pesticide), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and others which are known as endocrine disrupters, meaning that they alter the levels and state of hormones of the animals that ingest them. And this isn’t just about the fish turning androgynous– the humans like us that eat them can be greatly affected too. All those warnings about women eating fish during pregnancy? They’re not only because of mercury content, but also because of toxic chemicals that have been absorbed by sealife through the ingestion of plastics which have in turn absorbed these chemicals.

One of the animals most greatly affected is the Albatross. This starring character from Coleridge’s The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner is severely threatened by our current consumptive habits. Specifically, the Black Footed Albatross and Laysan Albatross, who make their home on isolated tropical islands in the North Pacific Gyre, are currently considered an endangered species. Not only are they accidentally caught by longline fishing, but they are prone to eating the colorful pieces of floating plastic that resemble food in the garbage patch. The plastic causes all sorts of havoc in their stomachs, and leaves them full with less room for real food. Parents of albatross chics bring these plastic bits resembling food back to their hungry chics, who’s stomachs fill up too quickly with poisons and in-digestible materials. They barely make it a few months on this diet.

Chris Jordan, a photographer that deals with ideas surrounding America’s vast consumption habits and its resulting consequences, took a trip out to the Pacific Gyre and Garbage patch and found a gut wrenching subject for a new body of work. The stomach of baby albatross chics. What he found was truly shocking and horrific, even unbelievable. But believe it. This is photography in the classical sense in that he is photographing what already exists in front of him without additional creation or manipulation.

“These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.”

“To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.”

The images are straight-forward in their approach, photographed from a similar vantage point and distance, leaving the viewer with nowhere to go but facing the reality of what he’s setting in front of them. Various states of death and decay are portrayed, from some birds that seem fairly in tact, like their death might have occured just a few days ago, to others that are merely a pile of bones. However, it becomes clear right away the message and purpose of the photographs. Chris is clearly highlighting the contents of these baby chics’ stomachs– plastic. The closer and longer you look, the more you can identify. Fishing line is prevalent, as are hundreds of bottle caps, can openers, cigarette lighters, stuff you wouldn’t imagine. If humans ate these things on a daily basis we would suffer a great deal. Now imagine a baby bird, a fraction of our size, eating the same thing. Eating our garbage which it mistakes as food. Why are we using a material that is meant to last forever to make things designed to be used for only a few seconds and then tossed away?

There is a desperation apparent in these pictures. It is the result of the death and decay in the photographs, but also in the feelings of disgust and horror the viewer is experiencing. Chris is showing us the direct result of our habits. He is making the clear connection between society’s consumptive and wasteful habits and the consequences of that. He is showing us that our garbage doesn’t just disappear at night never to be thought of again. That is has dire consequences, and not just for an animal thousands of miles away, but also closer to home, in the food that we eat and the ocean in which we swim. We have altered the composition of the ocean forever. Now, every sample of water or sand from anywhere in the world, contains plastic. Is this the world we want to leave for our children and our grandchildren?

If you’d like to hear Chris talk about the ethics involved in photographing these birds (ie. no plastic was added or moved in the process), you can do so via this 2 minute clip on vimeo. And to see more of his work, please visit his website.

Prix Pictet 2009 Shortlist Announced

Andreas Gursky, Untitled XIII, 2002

From the official press release: GENEVA & ARLES, France– A shortlist of twelve outstanding international photographers, from which one will be selected later this year to receive the Prix Pictet, the world’s photography prize for environmental sustainability, was announced today at Europe’s leading photography festival, Les Rencontres d’Arles in France.

The prize is supported by Swiss bank Pictet & Cie. Photographers shortlisted for the £60,000 (CHF100,000) first prize are:

Darren Almond, UK; Christopher Anderson, Canada; Sammy Baloji, Congo; Edward Burtynsky, Canada; Naoya Hatakeyama, Japan; Andreas Gursky, Germany; Nadav Kander, South Africa; Ed Kashi, USA; Abbas Kowsari, Iran; Yao Lu, China; Edgar Martins, Portugal and Christopher Steele Perkins, UK.

The Prix Pictet is an annual search for photographs that communicate powerful messages of global environmental significance under a broad theme. This year the theme is ‘earth’. A Mexican garbage dump where people forage to sustain a pitiful existence; the changing landscape and displaced communities of China’s Yangtze River; the devastating impact of oil production in the Niger Delta; and the annual pilgrimage to the desert fronts of the Iran-Iraq war are among the subjects that feature in the work of this year’s shortlisted artists.

The submissions speak of the harmful and often irreversible effects of exploiting the earth’s resources and reflect on the immediate and long-term impact of unsustainable development on communities across the globe.

‘Earth’, a book published by teNeues, cataloguing the work of the Prix Pictet nominees will accompany this year’s prize and launched on 6 October at Purdy Hicks Gallery, London.

The winner will be announced by Kofi Annan, honorary president of the Prix Pictet, on 22 October 2009 at the Passage de Retz gallery, Paris. A further award, in the form of a commission for one of the shortlisted photographers to visit a region where Pictet & Cie are supporting a sustainability project, will be announced at the same time.

Prix Pictet will collaborate with FIAC (22 – 25 October), Paris’ major international contemporary and modern art fair, and Paris Photo, the world’s leading event for photography (19 – 22 November).

An independent jury of seven leading figures from the worlds of the visual arts and the environment, chaired by the photography critic, Francis Hodgson, made the selection from over 300 nominations put forward by the seventy Prix Pictet nominators – a group that includes leading critics, practitioners and curators.

Nicolas Pictet, Partner of Pictet & Cie, said ‘The calibre of the shortlisted work for this second year of the Prix Pictet illustrates how the issue of sustainability resonates throughout the artistic community. We strongly believe that by bringing these images to the attention of the world, Prix Pictet will further highlight the devastating effect climate change is having on our planet and ensure sustainability remains at the heart of global policy making.’

Awarding the inaugural Prix Pictet to Canadian photographer Benoit Aquin last October, Kofi Annan said: ‘It is my hope that the Prix Pictet will help to deepen understanding of the changes taking place in our world and raise public awareness about the urgency of taking preventative action.’

———–

I’m not surprised to see most of the photographers who’ve made the shortlist, except for one. Edgar Martins. It’ll be very interesting to see if the latest controversy over the pulled NY Times images affects his candidacy negatively. The shortlist results came in only a few hours ago, and I would think the news of the controversy and ultimate withrawl of images from the NYT site hit France as soon as it did here in NYC, especially since the shortlist was announced from one of the largest photo festivals in the world.

I have been a fan Martins’ extensive bodies of work over the years, and loved Topologies. I find it hard however to now believe his black skies were all done within camera. I have no problem with darkroom techniques like dodging, burning, contrast or softening tools, etc. Or even with digital manipulation if that’s how it’s labeled. But to misrepresent your work in a way the public believes to be true goes against the ideology behind his work. Gursky on the other hand, while he doesn’t reveal the step-by-step process of his pictures, does say there is digital alteration and manipulation present in his work. Does it make it any less respectable? No, because it’s there for us to take into account and put into the context of his ideas and the respective images he creates from those ideas. Photographs are after all constructs of ideas that originate in less tangible forms.

Stay tuned on how this plays out in this most coveted of environmental photography prizes.

Sebastião Salgado: Genesis

Sebastiao Salgado one of the most well known photo journalists of our time. Over the past 36 years the Brazilian born photographer has been photographing developing countries and their respective communities showing us what these remote locations, their peoples, and their everyday lives entail. Salgado works in the humanitarian and social documentary vein, seeking out indigenous cultures as well as impoverished ones, with previous projects including migrant workers, displaced peoples, famine and war torn lands, and political issues. He uses photography as a means to the end, utilizing its immediate visual story telling capabilities as a tool to further urgent political and social issue based discussion.

© Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas images

Salgado began his career as a professional photographer in Paris, in 1973, and worked with the photo agencies Sygma, Gamma, and Magnum Photos up till 1994, when he and Lélia Wanick Salgado created Amazonas images, an agency that exclusively handles his work. Together, Lélia and Sebastião have worked since the 1990’s on the restoration of a small part of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. In 1998 they succeeded in making this land a nature preserve and created Instituto Terra, whose mission is reforestation, conservation and environmental education.

© Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas images

Salgado’s latest and probably the largest project to date is titled Genesis (which he says was not meant to invoke religious connotation), an environmental documentary project on a grandiose scale. While previously photographing the plight of various lands and its peoples, Salgado, an environmentalist, thought he needed to photograph the areas that have not been touched by humans, war, famine, pestilence, etc. To show the amazing and precious places that still exist on this planet is to bring to light how important and urgent their survival and preservation is. He hopes to make a difference in the larger environmental movement through his images of “pristine” places around the globe, taking him from 3 months in the Galapagos, to 500 miles trekking across the Ethiopian mountains. He has turned to focus from social systems to eco systems.

© Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas images

The images are dark and moody, in a grainy black and white. And while I’ve learned that Salgado has recently switched to digital cameras, the images still appear consistent with his style and look for over the past 30 years. They are not to be confused with traditional journalistic imagery, as he subjects here aren’t seen from a voyeurs point of view. Instead Salgado engages with his subjects, be it African tribesmen, Russian bears, or Venezuelan forests. They are slightly romanticized, but not overly so. I think the aim for this project is to romanticize these places specifically for the purpose of showing viewers eco systems that yet remained untouched, but only for so much longer. They have to be shown in an elevated light in order to truly cause emotion and not just give information.

Salgado’s work is all about context. Nothing is static or still, even in an image that may appear still. The narrative present has a past and a future, we’re only glimpsing a moment in passing. There is a real sense of fluidity in his images, but a calculated fluidity as well. Technically, they are perfect. Composition, light, POV, angles, all come together in the frame. But, that is the means to an end as well. There is always a story behind each Salgado photograph, and his techniques are merely the language with which he tells these stories. The style or genre is not quite documentary, not quite fine art, but somewhere again, in flux, moving between the two never landing in one place or the other, just like his images.

Salgado says of this body of work, “I have named this project GENESIS because my aim is to return to the beginnings of our planet: to the air, water and the fire that gave birth to life, to the animal species that have resisted domestication, to the remote tribes whose ‘primitive’ way of life is still untouched, to the existing examples of the earliest forms of human settlement and organisation. A potential path towards humanity’s rediscovery of itself. So many times I’ve photographed stories that show the degradation of the planet, I thought the only way to give us an incentive, to bring hope, is to show the pictures of the pristine planet – to see the innocence. And then we can understand what we must preserve.” -Sebastião Salgado via Jori Finkel for the NY Times.

To see more of Salgado’s striking images on what looks to be a 12 years project, currently 4 already under his belt, please visit the Peter Fetterman gallery where he is represented by clicking here.

Further links to the NY Times article here and to the Guardian’s regular posts on Genesis as it progresses here.

Questions and Answers: Richard Misrach

“In preparation for the High’s installation of On the Beach, Richard Misrach took time to answer a few questions about his influences and experiences over the course of his career” for his new solo exhibition titled “On the Beach” recently opened at the High Museum in Atlanta. The following is the full Q+A courtesy of the museum.

1. Your photographs often draw attention to human impact on the environment. Why is this issue important to you? Do you have a positive or negative view of the direction in which we are moving, given all that you have seen?

It is the great paradox of human existence. We must exploit our environment to exist, and we risk destroying it (and ourselves) in the process. It’s an extraordinary delicate balance and a compelling subject for one’s life’s work.

But there is also a deeply personal element to the work because I love being in the landscape: I find an aesthetic pleasure there that I don’t quite understand. My pictures are as much, maybe more, about the existential mystery of what I experience in the landscape than about civilization’s relation to it.

As far as the future of the planet, it’s hard not to worry. Just because we haven’t set in motion an irreparable calamity yet, is no insurance that we won’t in the future. Our nuclear arsenals, overpopulation, energy challenges and pollution remain growing threats. And yet, more than likely, it will be the unexpected that will be our undoing.

2. You have typically focused on the American landscape, free of human figures. In On the Beach, figures populate many of the scenes—why? What brought about this change?

After 9/11 several images of people falling/jumping from the towers were published in newspapers. Those images were some of the most terrifying and heartbreaking I’ve ever seen. I was haunted by them.

In the past, I photographed people in the landscape where they usually introduced a sense of scale and relationship to our manmade environment. The people falling from the towers provided a whole new kind of scale: a relationship to the abyss—the abyss that haunts all of us. Because of those pictures, I found traces of our relationship to the sublime—fear, resilience, defiance, peace and joy—even in the most ordinary activities by the sea.

3. You’ve been asked a lot about how you made the photos. What inspired you to assume that particular vantage point? How does it enhance the images and/or the message behind them?

The unusual “god’s eye view” draws attention to itself implicating the photographer in the process. This was important to me, as I was struck by the fact that right after 9/11, people carried on with their lives as if nothing had happened. People were vacationing and I was working; it was really weird actually.

It reminded me of that great Bruegel painting of Icarus falling into the sea. As Icarus plunges to his death, the farmer tills, the ship sails, life goes on.

My photograph of the handstand evokes the painting while inverting it—the legs represent the resilience? Obliviousness? In the face of our national tragedy. Even at the moment of such a profound national tragedy life inexplicably goes on.

Also, there is a sense of voyeurism and surveillance embedded in the all seeing vantage point. It is a relatively benign reminder—nobody is really compromised—but the camera is always watching in our Google satellite world.

4. To create the On the Beach series you used an 8×10 view camera. Can you talk a little about the technical advantages and challenges of working with a large format camera?

From a technical standpoint the 8×10″ camera was the wrong tool for this project. It is a cumbersome suitcase that requires reloading for each shot and has slow shutter speeds. It is not good for quick captures or stopping movement. By the time I would set up the camera, focus, load the film holder, pull out the film slide and depress the shutter, my subjects had often literally swum out of the frame. So many great pictures were missed.

That said, the fine detail afforded by the large negative, when I did get what I wanted, was crucial to achieve the intimate gestures and grand scale of the work.

5. You are perhaps best known for your images of the American West. What drew you to that landscape? How do you choose a location?

I was born in Los Angeles and surfed and skied growing up. The western landscape was my universe. Since 1968 I have had five Volkswagon campers which I’ve used to travel the West for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. I throw in my camera, food, film and some coolers with film holders, and head off without any destination in mind.

If it’s hot, I stay north, cold, I head to southern deserts. Basically, I wander around chasing the light from dawn to dusk and see what I can discover.

I usually found that if I had a preconceived idea for a project it wouldn’t amount to much. Discovery—an aggressive receptivity, if you will—of what is in the landscape provides the inspiration for new ideas.

6. With the advent of digital technology, photography has consolidated its position as the medium of the masses…what are your views on the prevalence of photography on the internet and the use of digital? How has it impacted your work?

So far the omnipresence of imagery on the internet hasn’t had a huge impact on me. However, digital production has completely changed the way I work and think about photography. I haven’t shot film in almost two years and am now making all of my own prints again (haven’t done that since the 1970’s). Some prints are as large as 10×13 feet!

Having full access to the new technologies has encouraged me to play and experiment in ways that take me back to when I was a beginning photographer. And given that everyone now in college will have the same opportunities—access to the means of production and radical new tools—the medium is destined for big, important changes. I can’t imagine a more exciting period for photography.

7. Over the course of your career photography’s place in the world of fine art has shifted and evolved. Do you feel that the way that photography is perceived/accepted has changed significantly since you began?

Despite historic claims to the contrary, photography was marginalized by the art world for a long time. However, in the last decade and a half, photography has been at the fore of art world practice. Moreover, when I began photography the idea of making a living selling work in galleries wasn’t even a fantasy. Now, for better or worse, photography has entered the art marketplace big time.

8. How did you break into photography and what advice would you give to aspiring photographers?

I think it was in 1968 that I saw the work of a young photographer, Roger Minick, hung on a wall in a small gallery at UC Berkeley where I was a student. I was deeply moved by the content of the work and the beauty of the prints, and I knew immediately that was what I was supposed to be doing with my life. I had never felt that before. Advice to aspiring photographers—follow your passion and work hard. If you are worried about career or marketplace, find another line of work…

Thanks to the museum for providing the Q+A. And if you’d like detailed exhibition information, Misrach’s bio, or to listen to the podcast lecture given by Richard on this body of work, please visit the museum’s website section devoted to this exemplary body of work by clicking here.

Exhibition: Richard Misrach: On the Beach

Just opened yesterday, the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia welcomes “On the Beach”, Richard Misrach’s most recent body of work currently on a national tour. This exhibition is the largest collection of photographs from this series ever to be viewed collectively. In a former post you can listen to a lecture Misrach gave on his process and ideology that led to this work. The show runs through August 23rd and more information including a link to a soon to be published catalogue can be found by clicking here.

Jem Southam

Senneville-sur-Fecamp, April. Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery and Charles Isaacs Photographs.

Jem Southam is a British landscape photographer focusing on man and nature’s subtle influence over the existing landscape. He explores his subjects or “sites” over many years, going back to each site over and over as would an archeologist or scientific surveyor in order to take time affected notes. The slight changes he’s able to witness from this approach allows us to view what can easily be taken for granted, the cycles of nature as well as man’s interference in those cycles.

In a series called “Rockfalls”, Southam photographed a section of the coastline of Normandy in northern France where dramatic cliffs change shape on a daily basis. The varying seasons, changes in weather patterns, storms, erosion by both water and rock, and even mineral and chemical content changes in the soil and water can alter the size and shape of these massive cliffs.

The images online don’t do these pictures justice at all. I was lucky enough to view this work on massive scale last year for Southam’s solo show Robert Mann gallery here in New York. Besides being absolutely gorgeous, the work asks for a second look as it commands a certain historical relevance and importance. Go ahead, take a second look.

Vaucottes, February. Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery and Charles Isaacs Photographs.

To see more of Southam’s work please visit the Robert Mann Gallery’s website by clicking here.

Interview with Daniel Shea

A few posts back, I wrote about the work of Daniel Shea, a Chicago based photographer covering environmental topics. I specifically focused on a project titled “Removing Mountains” (click here to read older post), where Shea spent 3 months in Appalachia documenting an extremely destructive form of coal mining called Mountain Top Removal. Shea was kind enough to answer a few questions about the work, process, and his ideas on the subject matter.

How did you first become interested in this subject and why?

First off, thanks for doing this interview! Issues surrounding coal and energy usage in this country are becoming increasingly relevant, and it makes me really happy to see people trying to get the word out. As for the question, at some point in high school I discovered radical politics and alternative models for current economic and social conditions. As you can imagine, an entire world was suddenly opening up for me. In college, while hanging out in the local anarchist bookshop, Red Emma’s , I met a few activists who were part of something called “Mountain Justice Summer.” MJS, I learned, was a summit for activists and community organizers interested in ending current coal-mining practices (in particular mountaintop removal mining) through direct action and public outreach. I almost immediately knew I wanted to travel to the region to explore mountaintop removal and the affected social landscape of Appalachia. I had the opportunity to apply for the Meyer Travelling Fellowship, and I worked on the grant for a year. I ended up getting the grant, and the rest is history.

Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?

This is a hard question to answer. I’ve become increasingly disillusioned with ideological perspectives in recent years, as they tend to filter reality in a way that is generally unproductive. Instead of subscribing to a political ideology, such as environmentalism, veganism, anarchism, feminism (all things I hold dear, in one way or another), I try to embrace an overall state of social awareness. Semantics aside, as someone who is deeply interested in sustaining the future of the natural world and generally looks at industry with profound cynicism (while admittedly still participating in the culture), I am an environmentalist. I have to be careful with my identifying labels, especially while on the road and retaining an air of neutrality. Of course, the perception of neutrality is what’s important, considering I very clearly have opinions on the matter!

You temporarily moved to and lived in a mountain town in Appalachia for 3 months in order to complete this project, how did you approach what you were doing with other members of the home you lived in?

I approached the situation with sincere and 100% genuine reverence. I’ve learned so much from listening to other people over the years, especially in the context of struggle. Coming to this region as a complete outsider was something I was constantly aware of. I reconciled my position of privilege only by gradually increasing my place in the community from passive witness to an involved artist. That being said, again, I had to maintain the perception of neutrality, so I was clearly not in the region as an activist (despite living with some of the most amazing activists I have ever met). I expected my transition into the community to be slow, however the people I lived with, and the folks involved in the fight against MTR were exceedingly warm and welcoming and made my stay there feel like home.

Portraits shape a large part of the work, including miners, some quite young and just starting on their path to a mining career. While this particular type of mining is known to be extremely harmful and devastating to wildlife, ecology, water supply, human health, and more, it also brings a much needed demand of labor and therefore resulting jobs, as well as a way of life passed down from generations before breeding a certain mining culture. How did you broach the controversial topic you were exploring when approaching your subjects in taking their portraits?

This question perhaps touches on exactly why this issue is so complex. Not only is the coal industry the main provider of jobs to an economically devastated region (due to coal, but that is another essay) but the idea of coal (in labor and history) is so ingrained in the culture that it constitutes one of the main fabrics of Appalachian life. Appalachian culture and coal can hardly be separated. We all can speak in grandiose in terms about the environment and industry, but the reality of the situation is that a working man in Appalachia is interested in having a job come next year. That is why I firmly believe that you can’t talk about the devastation of the coal industry and the urgent need to curb all current practices without presenting a clear economic alternative. Thankfully, clean energy alternatives and a push towards local, sustainable economies is often in the dialogue with activists and other citizen advocacy organizations.

What did you find to be the cultural implications of surface mining directly on the Appalachian mining community?

I wish there was an easy and concise way to answer this question! It’s important to understand that in a lot of towns, there was a point where coal was able to employ a large population and bring relative economic prosperity. However, coal, like all fossil fuels, is a finite source for energy, and once a given region’s resources have been extracted, there is often no work left. Coupled with rapidly changing technologies over the last 40 years (which lead to the development of modern incarnations of mining coal, such as mountaintop removal), which need a fraction of the work force once needed, I can safely say that coal has devastated the region economically. In our country and in most parts of the world, economic devastation leads to cultural disintegration on some level. The paradox here of course is that coal is Appalachia’s blessing and curse. It provides the few jobs available to a lot of the region’s underserved communities, but at the same time, the industry is just as responsible for economic devastation. It is both the provider and perhaps the only historically relevant industry to set the path for the rather complex economic issues plaguing the region.

That being said, culture is clearly affected by more elements than economics (although this is the prominent filter by which to speak of all elements of life in America). With mountains literally being destroyed, the fabled relationship Appalachians have with their mountains is being destroyed on the most basic level. How can you be people of the mountains with no mountains?Do you have an official stance on surface mining? I would like to see our country and the rest of the world make the shift to more sustainable modes for harboring and consuming energy. Stripped of all the rhetoric and politics, no one with any degree of credibility or intelligence will tell you that extracting and burning coal is indefinitely sustainable.

What do you believe will be the future for this specific industry?

I don’t have the expertise to really comment on this, but I feel that the coal industry, like most sectors of extraction and unsustainable industries, will soon be forced to redefine their practices. I think realistically, the campaign for “clean coal” will win the uniformed minds of the American people and the unconscionable deep pockets of American government. That’s unfortunate, but I’m admittedly cynical about this type of thing. Again, I’d like to see an end to all coal extraction practices, but that would require a relatively overnight shift in ideology, which I really don’t see happening.

What are you working on next?

I’m in the grant-writing and fund-seeking stages of a project that I would like to execute in Southern Ohio as a follow-up to Removing Mountains. Along the Ohio River are countless coal-fired power plants dotting the landscape. A lot of coal from Appalachia is being shipped to this region for energy conversion. I’d like to spend a month or two living in Southern Ohio, documenting the effects of the coal-burning industry on the landscape and local communities. I’ve already spent some time here, doing preliminary research, but I’m hopefully looking to complete this project in the Fall of this year. There are literally ghost towns surrounding some of these large plants due to the increasing sickness of all the residents in the immediate proximity. It’s a fascinating landscape and very revealing of the way a lot of people in this country live under the shadow of industry. This work, coupled with Removing Mountains, will hopefully be published as a book in 2010.

To view more of Daniel’s work, please visit his website dsheaphoto.net.

Vanishing Landscapes

For a Christmas gift I received a book from the top of my Amazon wish list, titled Vanishing Landscapes, recently published by Francis Lincoln Limited Publishers. It contains a collection of stunning photo essays by a renowned group of photographers all interested in capturing the beauty and fragility of our rapidly changing world. As you know, this isn’t always positive, especially when you’re looking at clear cut forests and icebergs you know are melting at a rate that will mark them extinct in our lifetime. At the same time however, these wondrous images tell the stories of a landscape longing to be preserved and asking for our attention and help.

Deterioration and death are often portrayed in a very beautiful way, thus changing the viewers perception of often brutal and unimaginable subject matter. However, this group of photographers along with the images chosen to represent them in this book, seem to ask questions of the viewer prompting change. One wonders how society can continue to act in a way that detrimentally affects the environment, especially when aware of these incredible landscapes all over the world. However, some don’t come to these realizations when viewing these images. I certainly do, but does the general public? I believe in the strength of the environmental movement and it’s advancement in social and environmental awareness, but I only wish that art and the media could affect people and their thoughts and actions more directly.

In a world where you’re inundated with both images and sound bites on a daily basis wherever you look, it’s hard to filter through all the crap, in order to get to the good stuff. Some people are better than others of course, especially when they’ve set that as a goal. But the general public– how much do they WANT to know about these issues? Do they at all? How many times have you heard people complain that they are sick and tired of hearing about eco this, green that, environmentally sound this, sustainable that. I hear it all the time. It can be very discouraging, when you know you are doing everything you can to help, and everything you can to increase awareness in a way that does NOT push people away. But sometimes, getting through to just one person can make a huge difference. By changing one person, you could potentially change someone in their network, and thus someone in their network, and the cycle continues. This happened to me the other day, and it made me feel like things are happening. People are willing to change. They sincerely want to. But they can’t if they aren’t aware of both what their actions are doing as well as how they could change them.

Vanishing Landscapes contains 4 chapters; water, ice, plants, and land. In an introduction by Nadine Barth, the book’s editor, she states, ” Ultimately all we can do is hope that by viewing these images we shall finally come to our senses.” She’s hit the nail on the head. The images in the book illustrate what is stated in the essays following Barth’s introduction. Friedrich Tietjen writes “Discoveries in a Familiar World: The Landscape as a Photographic Object”; John Berger “On Visibility”; a transcript from an interview with Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Change Impact Research, who also happens to be the official advisor to the German government on questions of climate change and energy; and finally an essay by Karsten Smid of Greenpeace titled “Why We Must Act Now.” These essays are exceptional, giving information first hand and straight to the point, answering questions like which landscape is the first to go, how soon, etc. Viewing the photographs again, after reading the essays, is a completely different experience. While I at first saw them as lonely and melancholy knowing the fate they are facing, a renewed sense of urgency came forth when viewing them a second time. Photographers included are: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Elger Esser, Peter Bialobrzeski, An-My Le, Josef Hoflehner, Axel Hutte, Olaf Otto Becker, Mette Tronvoll, Walter Niedermayr, Michael Kenna, Jitka Hanzlova, Thomas Struth, Robert Adams, Giovanni Castell, Henrik Saxgren, Joel Sternfeld, Jem Southam, Lidwien van de Ven, Edward Burtynsky, Karin Apollonia Muller, and Per Bak Jensen.

The book is available on Amazon.

Misty Keasler

I first came across Misty’s photographs when I worked at Ricco/Maresca gallery (now Hasted/Hunt as far as the photography portion goes.) Born into the anti-abortion and anti-birth control world of communist Romania myself, I was fascinated that she was STILL interested in the vast numbers of children’s orphanages there. Not much was heard after the short period of heightened awareness surrounding the existence of these children and the problems that plague them, which coincided with the fall of socialist block in ’89 during and after the Romanian revolution. A few months passed, and both the news on television screens and headlines in the paper slowly moved away from the shock, horror, and urgency of the orphan situation, to whatever else was occuring closer to home. When Misty came in to show her work at the gallery, I couldn’t help but admire her hunger to tell these children’s stories, and specifically the way she wanted to tell them. She didn’t want to exploit them, shock the viewer into turning away, or shove any message or point of view into the viewer’s face. Instead, she wanted to tell the story she thought she should tell, which simply, was the story that told itself to her once she began photographing. They are quiet images. They are peaceful in their sense of calm, even when showing chaos.

Below are a few examples of a recent project in which Misty photographed a garbage dump in Guatemala. She took two separate trips, each a month long, documenting and visiting the people that inhabit, live, and make their lives in the dump. Countries without the kind of affluence that exists in the United States, don’t have the luxury to ship their trash to other places. Their dumps aren’t closed off and veiled in utter secrecy and surrounded by massive surveilance and security as they are here. Misty was thus able to get in and photograph the garbage itself, and the the people that live in it, as they have no other choice. The photographs are disheartening, and yet inspirational. They are disheartening because of the realization that these conditions do exist for many people. But they are inspiring because they cause awareness, and only with awareness can one do something about the situation in front of them. To see more examples of Misty’s work including many other projects, please visit her website.

Brian Ulrich: Copia

Continuing on the topic of consumerism and general American mass consumption, is the work of Brian Ulrich. After George Bush urged Americans to “spend spend spend” after 9/11, he turned citizens into consumers. Their civil duty was now to boost the US economy one man at a time. Shopping was to be the answer to terrorism. But Brian was not buying it, and he sure as hell wasn’t spending it either.

“Shopping”, Brian says, “presents the illusion of choice, but it’s not our choice–it’s what’s presented to us, what Kraft and Conagra want us to own. We go into stores with elation, hoping for something to relate to emotionally, and come out from the ordeal depressed and depleted.” He focuses on details like a sign at a gas station, “Homeland Security Threat Level Today–Please see cashier for details” to establish the connection between the “war on terror” and our consumption addiction. His landscape of Sunday shoppers strolling through Costco’s fluorescent-lit aisles alludes to “Sunday Afternoon on the Island La Grande Jatte,” contrasting Seurat’s era to ours.

I came across this body of work at Julie Saul a few years ago, which included three sections; Retail, Thrift, and Backrooms. To see get more info or see more work, please visit his website. You’ll notice, it’s called “Not If But When”. According to an interview in The Style Press, “Not If But When came from the weeks after 9/11. On one day it seemed this phrase was the headline of every newspaper and for me signified the messaging from the media the psychological climate of this country should shift from one of empathy and grieving to one of fear. I decided to co-opt this phrase to try and turn it against itself. Using ‘Not If But When’ as a moniker for my projects as an artist gives the phrase new meaning.”