We live in a time of rapid environmental change giving the nature photographer new responsibility arising out of biospheric considerations
On a global scale, opportunities to photograph certain aspects of nature are increasingly diminished by human activities. As habitats are altered, many of the inhabitants are lost. If habitat loss continues at its present accelerating rate, the vast majority of small invertebrate life forms (insects for example - the planet’s most biodiverse animal group) will disappear from the planet before they can be discovered and described. It is inevitable that only a small fraction of insect species will ever be photographed while they are living. If nature photography is defined as informative and artistic imaging of the living world, then opportunities for its practice are diminishing with habitat losses and species extinctions.
Nature photography and the doing of art
Camera work and the exhibition of my photography is an integrative attempt to combine working in nature with the doing of art. Not only can photography document the natural history of endangered species and vanishing habitat, the medium can, in creative hands, visually portray the interdependence between animal and plant life forms upon which life as we know it depends. Because images can be used to inform and to inspire, photographing nature is an appropriate response to the global emergency of biodiversity loss. In the analytical terms of science, nature photography is a descriptive tool. In the creative hands of an artist, the medium has the ability to help us conceptualize the shifting balance between our species needs and those of others on the planet. Contemporary nature photography is rich in aesthetic quality and informational content: its niche is to render nature as art using the knowledge of science. Although the challenge is monumental, documentary nature photography can help unite concern for the natural environment with the persuasive powers of visual art.
Photography as a catalyst
Photography is ultimately a catalyst. Its a force influencing our perception of reality. Without a visual image what meaning do things have? Photography’s significance and importance lie therefore in its ability to convey visual information as well as to inspire a viewer to do something, like to think, feel, or learn about life. Unless we know living things, how will we come to love them? Unless we learn to love them, we will not have the will to conserve, protect, or sustain them. And to complete the argument, without them we will not exist.”