Behind this crazy year of COVID and lockdowns is a call from nature that we have out grown our planet. Our collective life styles and actions have tipped the balance of nature and she can cope no more. If David Attenborough’s prophecy is correct, we are now on a speeding downward spiral towards extinction. We have to act now.
The problem is, too many of us feel as if we have no voice or our own small actions will have no impact on this huge issue. Normal life is busy, surviving is hard and with all the distractions it is easy to bury our heads in the sand and leave the environment until tomorrow and someone else.
But the pause of lockdown has given us all space to breathe, and for nature to breathe too. We’ve seen how quickly she can recover if we only give her a chance.
Behind this collection of photography is an idea that photography and social engagement can be used together, to spread this message loud and clear. To raise awareness of the little changes we can make that will make a big difference and to show our leaders that this is what we want above all else.
We have to fight for the world that we want.
Playing with light and dark – what is hidden and revealed. How this can frame our perspective.
My children drew the eyes that they wore. A reference to the ‘all seeing eye’, or ‘god’.
I asked my children to think about how they would feel if they were ‘nature’. My daughter said she would feel angry.
Nature waiting for another chance to return. My children and I made these crowns together. Talking about nature and the environment as we did so. I’m developing the project into a workshop that can be taken into schools to continue the conversation and encourage action.
What have we learnt? …that our planet is ready to recover if we only give it a chance? that a green future is the only future?…I hope enough of us will see the light.
Creating crowns was initially inspired by the work of Luis Gonzalez Palmer. I saw this as the perfect tool to take nature and use it to symbolise a god or goddess and power.
Once lockdown eased we were able to go to my studio and work with more space. Inspired by the dying coral reefs, I created a sterile forest of paper rolls for the nature gods to explore.
The children were instructed to move like zombies. As if nature were on it’s last legs. The truth is though that nature will prevail, but man may become extinct if we do not find balance and a way to live respectfully on our planet.
Mournful tree hugging.
Moving forward, I’m currently looking for funding to create a socially engage project involving children, costume designers and photography that will shout this environmental message even louder.
