Environment | Thinking About Photo

Photography and Our Environment

April 10th - June 30th

Spring 2025

William McFarlane Notman, Yoho National Park, British Columbia, 1887,

"The earth has music for those who listen." - unknown

When I was in my late 20s, I became interested in moving from still photography into film-making and had volunteered to be the Art Director on a student film. This is where you create the look and style of a film through locations, lighting, costumes and props. It was set in the desert and we would be spending several weeks out at 29 Palms, California (in the Mojave Desert). At that time, to be honest, I wasn’t really a fan of the desert - it was something you drove through. Its very name meant empty.

So we headed out - keep in mind that working on a film crew is a lot of “hurry up and wait.” There’s endless time sitting and waiting: for the equipment to be set up, for the light to be perfect - waiting while they reshoot because a plane flew overhead during the take. We’d scurry in to reset the props for another take and then move back out to wait. It was during those waiting times, sitting silently and looking out at the desert, that it slowly unfolded itself to me, changing from empty space into a magical, harsh landscape filled with subtle moments of beauty and disarming vistas.

That transformation has stuck with me - in fact those open spaces remind me of the ocean - providing us with an opportunity to feel small, to be dwarfed by something much greater than us. Our largest mistakes - the path to ruin - is when we forget that we are small in comparison to nature. We are at once both a speck in the universe and at one with it. These natural spaces form our origin stories and our soul responds in profound ways when we are surrounded by it. Think about what happens when you arrive at the ocean - almost against your will, your eyes gaze out towards the horizon as your soul becomes quiet. Richard Misrach's Desert Cantos project is a perfect example of this captivating experience.

We are not the owners of this world, we are the custodians. They have been lent to us and we hold them in trust for tomorrow. From photography's inception, it has been a champion for our lands. In the midst of our brutal civil war, and inspired by Carlton Watkins' mammoth-plate photography, President Lincoln signed the Yosemite Valley Grant Act of 1864 - which laid the foundation for our National Parks Service. From Sebastião Salgado we have Genesis, his eight-year worldwide survey which he calls "my love letter to the planet" featuring landscapes and people unchanged by modern development. One of my personal favorites is Michael Kenna - his elegant compositions and tonal range create quiet moments in the landscape and a sense of timelessness.

The theme for this showcase is very dear to me and I’m so pleased with the wonderful group of featured artists and book reviews. One photographer blends insights on mental health with a passion for visual storytelling, while another turns the lens toward our inland seas - examining the fragility and resilience of complex ecosystems. Several have found photography is a passport - exploring the many vistas that people around the world call home. Whether they journey to the world’s last truly wild places - or the wild spaces found outside their door, all these projects celebrate and honor our natural environments. From PhotoBook Journal we have an exceptional set of books on: life in the Russian Arctic, climate change, our wild seas, animals, the melancholy of everyday landscapes and creativity inspired by our natural spaces.