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Environment Reporting
Earth Alliance, a nonprofit organization
Fobes cofounded to support photographic
and film documentary
projects that educate the public about
the environment, world cultures, and
social issues.] At the same time licensing
fees for these images remained the
same or even declined while the costs
of doing business increased. Some
photographers have been driven out of
business.
Using Innovative Techniques
But the most serious problem facing
environmental photographers and writers
is the numbing of the public to the
complexities of environmental stories.
Rhetoric designed for a 30-second
sound bite has had a polarizing effect
on the public.
The coverage of the Bush
administration’s recent forest plan is a
good example. In the aftermath of the
devastating western wildfires, President
Bush proposed thinning trees and underbrush
as a way of lessening the risk.
He condemned environmental lawsuits
and stated that they had prevented the
government from removing the underbrush
in the past. His new policy would
prevent future legal challenges. The
insinuation was that the environmentalists
were in part responsible for the
fires.
Television and the local Seattle newspapers
covered the pre-announcements
of the policy as well as the
President’s speech. It was not until I
read the next day’s Seattle Post-
Intelligencer, and watched public television
news later that night, that I
learned the government’s General Accounting
Office had found and reported
that environmentalists had challenged
fewer than one percent of these
projects. They had gotten a bad rap
that would be nearly impossible to
correct.
Distrust and demonization cut both
ways. Many of my friends and colleagues
are convinced that the only good logger
is an unemployed logger. They are
astounded when I tell them that some
of the most rabid conservationists I’ve
interviewed worked in a logging camp
Quetzals live in the cloud forest—a rain forest situated between 4,500 and 7,000 feet.
Often the clouds are below the mountaintops. Photo by © Natalie B. Fobes 1992.
in Alaska.
So how do we help foster a better
understanding of environmental issues?
First, put away the rhetorical white
and black hats and bring the debate
back to the issues and away from the
politics or personalities. Don’t be content
with covering only the superficial.
Assign photographers and reporters to
areas of interest and let them learn
about their specialties. Assign more
space to articles about the environment.
Environmental photojournalism will
become even more important in the
future as our society struggles with the
escalating depletion of our once vast
natural resources. The challenge for
photographers will be to create evocative
images that tell the story of what
this loss means. And as photojournalists
seek out these images, headshots
of bear, walrus or salmon won’t make
it in this era of flash, pop and increasing
visual sophistication.
Real decisive moments, not captured
in animal farms but rather in the wild,
will always captivate us. But there are
new photographic approaches that
stimulate our thinking, too. In his
groundbreaking and successful book,
“Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered
Wildlife,” James Balog photographed
animals in a studio. Unlike
photographers who hire captive animals
and pose them in the wild to
create natural-looking images, Balog
went out of his way to photograph
them in a very unnatural environment.
He wanted to force the viewer to concentrate
on the magnificence of these
endangered creatures.
In my exhibit, “Salmon in the Trees,”
I printed my salmon photos and poems
on flags and hung them from the
trees near a salmon stream in a Seattle
Park. The theme was the importance of
salmon to the forests. It is another
example of how photographers can
get their message across in a nontraditional
way.
Different photographic techniques
and formats also surprise the eye. Some
photographers hand-color their black
and white prints to create images with
a hint of mystery. Others use wideformat
cameras to capture unpredictable
angles. In my second book, “I
Dream Alaska,” as well as my Orion
article about the Exxon Valdez oil spill,
I printed my images with the Polaroid
transfer process. To do this, I first take
a Polaroid photograph of a slide. I then
pull the negative from the film pack
before the print is fully developed and
lay it on a sheet of paper. The dyes
transfer to the paper, creating an image
with a timeless watercolor quality.
Nieman Reports / Winter 2002 59