One of the highlights of last weekend’s Telluride Photography Festival was seeing the work of Robert Glenn Ketchum and learning about the International League of Conservation Photographers. If your photography had the kind of impact Robert’s has just once in your career you would die happy. He does it over and over again with a multitude of grants from people who understand the impact photography can have in changing peoples minds. What really brought this idea home for me was watching the presentation by Christina Mittermeier, president of the iLCP, where she said the goal of their RAVE (rapid assessment visual expedition) projects was to “create tipping points around conservation issues using the power of photography.” Seeing the successes of both Robert and the iLCP emboldened my thoughts about the vast power of photography and its place in our future. Not just for conservation, but as a tool for reaching people in an increasingly crowded media space.
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- By rhaggart
- In Events, Photographers
7 Comments
This is why I shoot and write, to achieve good for the natural world. We have to be the voice for wildlife and wilderness now more than ever.
ILCP seems to be doing fine work. I think if you are a wildlife photographer or a conservation biologist you have to be stupidly optimistic. A world with 9 billon people in it is just round the corner and things will probably go badly (from past experience)
I think the immediacy of the web has a lot going for it and something like a ILCP RAVE can make a difference. The thing I’m thinking about about is how to constantly say things are going badly without making people feel apathetic. Perhaps concentrating on the wonderful every so often might help?
Harrington, I like you comment : Perhaps concentrating on the wonderful ever so often might help”. This is why we are having a Silent Auction in Los Angeles October 23rd. To raise funds to support wildlife in the Gulf. We are calling it a celebration of our oceans, coastlines, and wetlands. Robert Glenn Ketchum is donating an auction print, along with many other fantastic conservation photographers. Heartwarming.
Even with her discovered beauty there is so much of nature yet to be seen. How lucky are we at all!
Those are stunning images. I linked to it on my new blog about storytelling and design for good: http://www.benevolentmedia.org. Let me know if you hear of other photography projects that inspire social or environmental change. Thanks!
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