Stop Moving So Fast: Reframing the Environmental Narrative through Photography

Clark, Ariana

Stop Moving So Fast: Reframing the Environmental Narrative through Photography

Author(s)

Clark, Ariana

Date Issued

April 14, 2023

Abstract

Environmental photography has been a valuable asset for portraying what is going on around the world. Pictures of a lone malnourished polar bear on a drifting piece of ice, wildfires raging through forests, air pollution engulfing cities, and pollution in waterways are what people are shown to represent that there are environmental problems around the world. People become numb to this chaos because they see these kinds of pictures over and over. What if instead of a negative narrative of the environment through photography, there was a positive narrative captured through photography? I took pictures around Allegheny College’s campus with a digital camera to capture images someone may not see on a daily basis. The pictures captured get the viewer to look closer and slow down. So maybe this way, people will respond better to saving the environment and slowing down climate change. There were 14 pictures in the end. The images were displayed in 2 frames: a larger one 27”x40” and a smaller one 4”x6”. Further research will need to be conducted in order to assess whether this kind of photography actually does get people to react differently to the environment.

Major

Environmental Science

Honors

Environmental Science and Sustainability, 2023

First Reader(s)

Pallant, Eric T.