Changing Circumstances - Looking at the Future of the Planet by FotoFest International

Page 1

CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES

artists and scientists are re-visioning our relationship with the Earth, its oceans and atmosphere. The artists and artworks confront a broad range of issues that are challenges to the future of the Earth. These include climate change, water, energy, biodiversity, and food production, population, natural resources, waste, and migration. Many of the works present atypical uses of visual art and photography to address these changes with new media, moving image, performance, and text. Essays by Thomas E. Lovejoy, professor of environmental science at George Mason University (Virginia), and Geof Rayner, honorary research fellow of City University London and a founder of Photofusion Photography Centre (London), look at the dynamic relationships between contemporary art photography, issues

of global change, biodiversity and the relationship of human society to the environment. In her essay, FotoFest International co-founder and curator Wendy Watriss writes about the need for a new vision of Nature. FotoFest executive director Steven Evans provides the introduction for the book. In artist statements accompanying their images, the participating artists present their own perspectives on the state of Earth’s ecosystems and the impacts of human society on the planet in the age of the Arthropocene, as widely recognized by scientists today.

www.fotofest.org | www.schiltpublishing.com

Looking at the Future of the Planet

Changing Circumstances is an expansive presentation of international contemporary photography, video, and new media art addressing the challenges presented by global change. It shows the works of thirty-four international artists, focusing on the ways in which these media reflect on our relationship, as individuals and as a society, to the natural environment around us. An important aspect of this presentation is how individual artists are using their work to address the impact of human behavior on the natural environment. The purpose of the book is to provoke, through visual art, new ways of thinking about how we see our role within the natural environment and our connection(s) to the rest of the planet—and how this affects our future. The book looks at ways in which

CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES

Looking at the Future of the Planet


AMY BALKIN MANDY BARKER DANIEL BELTRÁ ATUL BHALLA EDWARD BURTYNSKY BARBARA CIUREJ AND LINDSAY LOCHMAN PEDRO DAVID LUIS DELGADO-QUALTROUGH SUSAN DERGES NIGEL DICKINSON DORNITH DOHERTY DAVID DOUBILET PETER FEND ROBERTO FERNÁNDEZ IBÁÑEZ KAREN GLASER GINA GLOVER


INGO GÜNTHER NIKLAS GOLDBACH LUCY HELTON CHRIS JORDAN ISAAC JULIEN DAVID LIITTSCHWAGER PABLO LÓPEZ LUZ EVELYN MESSINGER AND KIM SPENCER VIK MUNIZ ROBERT HARDING PITTMAN MERIDEL RUBENSTEIN JOEL SARTORE TOBY SMITH JAMEY STILLINGS MARTIN STUPICH BRAD TEMKIN


COVER ILLUSTRATIONS FRONT, TOP Karen Glaser Bream in the Highlights, 2006 From the series Springs and Swamps

FRONT, BOTTOM Joel Sartore Brown Hooded Kingfisher, (Halcyon albiventris), Chitengo Camp, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, 2011 From the series Photo Ark (2006–)

BACK Isaac Julien Western Union Series No. 1 (Cast No Shadow), 2007


INTRODUCTION

UNORTHODOX CONVERSATIONS / 12 STEVEN EVANS ESSAYS

A WEB OF LIFE / 16 WENDY WATRISS

THE LIVING PLANET / 24 THOMAS E. LOVEJOY

SURVIVING THE ANTHROPOCENE / 32 GEOF RAYNER

Artworks / 50 CHECKLIST BIOGRAPHIES

/

249

/

260

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

/

271


“...looking into one vast, unfolding, creative process...�


Susan Derges

Star Field – Bracken, 2008

Susan Derges

51


Karen Glaser

I am forever moved by water. Living now in the

Fire in the Pines #1, 2010

Suwannee River Basin in north central Florida, amongst woods, rivers, and our beloved springs, I know freshwater is the link to life, and my spirit is full of joy as I swim in these waters every morning. The region is home to some of the most distinctive and breathtaking ecosystems in the world. Its underwater caves and sinks are second to none for diving, swimming, and snorkeling. But the terrain is very fragile because of its karst geology. This soluble rock has made one-of-a-kind underwater landscapes, but the same soft rock can wreak havoc with construction and big agriculture, raising continuing concerns about the aquifer.

78


My interest in the freshwater springs first began

primordial swamps are located, in Big Cypress

in the mid- to late 1980s when I was in Crystal River,

National Preserve and its neighbor, the Everglades

Florida. My first encounter with a manatee there

National Park. Parts of the park and preserve are

was a startling but thrilling experience. While I was

a mere forty-five minutes from the sprawl of Miami

swimming, a manatee quietly approached me. Feeling

to the east and Naples to the west.

something under my fin, I looked down and discovered

Some of these areas are still wild, primitive, and

three huge manatees were in the water underneath

untouched. With artist residencies from both the

me. I was frightened, excited, inspired, soothed,

park and the preserve, I was able to explore this

and, most of all, humbled. I started photographing

vibrant and organic region, capturing the rare beauty

manatees and their habitats, where springs are an

of nature. The photographs are made “inside” the

important part of the freshwater reserves.

waterways and show the worlds that exist below

Time spent in the freshwater springs and rivers of north central Florida inspired my trip to the southern part of the state where the most magnificent

the surface—powerful, visceral, and mesmerizing “worlds” that are layered with rich and different environments, “worlds” that most people don’t see.

KAREN GLASER


ONE CUBIC FOOT

Amy Balkin

The Atmosphere, 2015 A Guide is a poster-essay

80

Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet


David Liittschwager

David Liittschwager

81


98

Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet


“...Its wild, empty places gave me a sense of personal vulnerability, but also made me conscious of the vulnerability of the environment itself...”

PREVIOUS PAGES

Gina Glover Volcanic Craters of Laki, Iceland, 2011 LEFT

Gina Glover Water Held by the Cold, Disko Bay, Greenland, 2013

Gina Glover

99


Edward Burtynsky Edward Burtynsky

Mount Edziza Provincial Park #1, Northern British Columbia, Canada 2012

122



SOUP

176

Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet


Mandy Barker “...marine plastic debris has no boundaries...�

Mandy Barker SOUP : Bird’s Nest

Ingredients: discarded fishing line that have formed nest-like balls due to tidal and oceanic movement. Additives: other debris collected Mandy Barker

177

in its path. 2011



I see the natural world as is its own multi-dimensional being, independent of any ownership or dominion we imagine we have over it. Life is a vast cathedral that surrounds us in every moment, a fractal envelope of harmonic resonance, a standing symphonic sound

“... There were times observing the albatrosses on the island when all I could do was bow down in astonishment ...”

wave that birthed us, sustains us, and gives rise to our awareness. How does one express one’s relationship with this magnificent miracle? For me, thoughts can serve only as blurry signposts; words cannot contain the wonder of what I see and feel. Our feelings serve as our connection with the world, and lately I have become particularly drawn to the power of grief. In my eight trips to Midway Island, witnessing the environmental tragedy that is taking place there, I have discovered that grief is not the same as sadness or despair; grief is the same as love. Grief is a felt experience of love for something we are losing or have lost. Grief honors our pain for the world and transmutes it through the filter of our heart. It helps remind us what we have forgotten, reuniting us with the center of our being where our compassion and wisdom reside. There were times with the albatrosses when all I could do was bow down in astonishment, seeking a gesture to express the reverence that filled my soul. Operating the camera in moments like this is a challenge, but that is what photography is for me, at its core: a kind of prayer. Not just out to something, but also from an internal place: The way the filament of a light bulb appears to shine only outwardly, but its light comes from somewhere else. It is that from somewhere that I am most interested in.

CHRIS JORDAN

LEFT, TOP

Chris Jordan CF000238 : Unaltered Stomach Contents

of a Laysan Albatross Fledgling, Midway Island, 2010 LEFT, BOTTOM

Chris Jordan CF010015 : Unaltered Stomach Contents

of a Laysan Albatross Fledgling, Midway Island, 2010

Chris Jordan

191


EK RUPAYA BADA GILASS [ONE RUPEE FOR A BIG GLASS OF WATER]

228

Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet


Atul Bhalla

Ek Rupaya Bada Gilass [One Rupee For a Big Glass], 2009–2012

Atul Bhalla

Atul Bhalla

229


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.