Shining some light on climate change through photography

Images have the power to convey important information and raise awareness to relevant issues at hand, says photography student <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Janique-Goff-2026841217369578/">Janique Goff Madison</a>. Because of this, photography can be used as a means to illuminate and combat climate change.

The widely recognized way it helps fight climate change is by helping make visceral what people could only imagine before. For some, climate change or global warming feels like an abstract idea because they do not have a deep understanding of how destructive it can be. Photographs of the effects of climate change can provide direct evidence of how real the phenomenon is.

For instance, Janique Goff Madison notes that the imagery most people associate climate change with is the pictures of polar bears floating on pieces of ice over the sea. The repetitiveness of the image may have numbed a lot of people to the concept of climate change. But by presenting people with more visual proof of its effects, it can lead to more of them joining in on the crusade against climate change.

Some of the ways photographers have used imageries to shed some light on climate change are taking underwater shots that show how marine life has been adversely affected by warming water temperatures and photos that reveal the destruction brought about by flooding, droughts, environmental degradation, and destroyed forests.

Portrait photography has also been used to let more people become aware of climate change. Janique Goff Madison recalls the story of Jackson Harries, a photographer who launched the project “Faces of Change” a few years ago to capture the human experience of climate change in nations heavily affected by the rising global temperature.