The Photography of Poisoned Ecologies
Claude Baillargeon,
Oakland University
As globalization strengthens its hold upon all corners of the earth, its
impact on the environment is becoming increasingly troublesome. While global
warming may be the most alarming consequence, it is by no means the only
form of potential damage. Driven by the economic imperatives shaping global
markets and the world's insatiable hunger for energy, the current, unbridled
exploitation of natural resources is revealing a pattern of reckless
stewardship threatening the entire planet. Nowhere is this short-sightedness
made more explicit than in the ever-expanding corpus of photographs
testifying to the despoiling of the earth's surface, the mismanagement of
natural resources, the proliferation of radioactive and other toxic sites,
and the ensuing collateral damage inflicted upon people. While natural
calamities wreaking havoc upon the environment have long yielded sobering
photographs, it is in response to human-induced threats and damages and their
effect on people that lens-based representation has most effectively been
used to raise environmental consciousness.
Often intended to foreground the impact of societal behaviors, industrial
practices, corporate priorities, and governmental policies, the reliance
upon documentary media to depict poisoned ecologies and bear witness to
environmentally related human tragedies reflects a continued investment in
the assumed authority of indexical images. Yet, the transformation of
horrific sights into beautiful photographs and allusion to the sublime is a
recurring trait within the genre, which aspires to engage viewers in a
collective process of soul-searching. Intended to reaffirm the urgency of a
global response, this presentation features heartrending case studies from
around the world from the dual perspective of reckless stewardship and
collateral damage. Using representative samples from a multiplicity of
photographic practices, this talk emphasizes the dramatic impact that
globalization is having upon our shared environment, while bringing
attention to some of the people afflicted by its sprawling toxicity.
Claude Baillargeon is Associate Professor of Art and
Art History at Oakland University. He has worked for the Canadian Centre
for Architecture and the Dawson City Museum and Historical Society.
Baillargeon has been an Ansel Adams research fellow as well as a fellow for
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In addition
to
Imaging a Shattering Earth, he has curated
Revolutionizing
Cultural Identity: Photography and the Changing Face of Immigration,
Dickensian London and the Photographic Imagination, and many
others. Baillargeon has a Ph.D. in Art History from UC Santa Barbara, and
an MA in Modern Art History, Theory, and Criticism and an MFA in Photography
from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
