Beyond photographic limits -
L. Fritz magazine

The ten selected works by international photographers take up important aspects around the comprehensive topic of climate change: air pollution, land exploitation, weather disasters, destruction of habitat for human and animal, the resulting migration and the relationship between humans and nature. The projects’ different gazes are as diverse as the topics themselves. They range from traditionally documentary to rather interpretative or personal approaches and aesthetics. And although they are all closely linked to the depicted place or topic, they also convey a universal message, which reveals how much human welfare depends on a healthy environment and, conversely, the latter depends on the former – regardless of whether the photographs were taken in the Amazon or the north of Russia.

The task is no easy one, in many respects. Unlike the climate catastrophe, which generates strong images now and then, the climate crisis, unfolding slowly, can be only partially observed directly. The photograph, which captures the momentary, very soon reaches its limits and throws up the question of whether the individual image is comprehensive enough to portray the complexity of climate change.

“The more pictures photographers make of land destruction, violence or poverty, the more accustomed we become to seeing them”, says Maria Teresa Salvati, founder and chief editor of the “Sideluck Editorial”. And there is another dilemma added to this: “If [photography] is trying to communicate an uncomfortable truth about environmental degradation and the image is beautiful, the question arises as to whether the message is compromised by the form, and so if the image is consumed aesthetically rather than politically.”