points of view,” Roth asserted. An example
of this would be the works of American
photographer Chris Jordan, who’s collection of
polluted seabirds elicited the most significant
response from viewers at the exhibition.
Travelling the shorelines of beaches and
islands around the world, Jordan photographed
the content of seabirds’ stomachs, burst open
and bare as they decayed on the sand. “What
you see is horrifying,” Roth lamented, “You
see that the diet of these seabirds increasingly
consists of plastic and other human waste.”
While speculations from skeptics claim that
Jordan’s photographs are “ersatz documentary
images”—images that are staged but mimic
something real—Roth insisted that the message
prevailed regardless of the image’s nature.
“These pictures, even if they are not
documentary images, have had a tremendous
impact because they make our viewers ask
the question, could this possibly be real and
are we really having this kind of an impact on
wildlife and on the natural world?”
At the end of the day, Roth argues that
art certainly has a place in any social or
politically charged movement. Art is a lessconfrontational means for communication,
making it “incredibly easy to connect people
who otherwise might not see eye to eye on a
certain subject, or share a perspective about
different experiences.”
Adrien Missika, Documentation photograph of Darvaza, Turkmenistan,
2011. Courtesy of the artist
Mishka Henner, Wasson Oil Field, Yoakum County, Texas, 2013.
From the series The Fields, pigment print. Courtesy of the artist and Bruce
Silverstein Gallery
The Edge of the Earth:
Climate Change in Photography and Video
September 14 – December 4, 2016
Guest Curator: Dr. Bénédicte Ramade
Ryerson Image Centre
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