Changing Circumstances

Book excerpt: Changing Circumstances - Looking At The Future Of The Planet is an expansive presentation of international contemporary photography, video, and new media art addressing the challenges presented by global change. The book shows the works of over 30+ leading international artists, focusing on the ways in which photographic, video and digital art reflects on our relationship, as individuals and as a society, to the natural environment around us. An important aspect of this presentation is how individual artists are using their work to initiate and actively support change that seeks to correct the negative impact of human behaviour on the natural environment. The purpose of the book is to provoke, through visual art, new ways of thinking about how we see our role within the natural environment and our connection(s) to the rest of the planet - and how this affects our future. While we cannot ignore the problems of the planet today, the book will not simply be a recitation of negative prognoses. Rather it will look at ways in which artists and scientists are re-visioning our relationship with the earth and space. The artists and artworks address a broad range of issues that we understand as key challenges to the future of the earth - including climate change, migration, water, energy production, and natural resources. Many of the works present atypical uses of visual art and photography to address these changes with new media, moving image, performance, and text. Lead essays will be provided by the pioneering curator Wendy Watriss, Co-Curator of the Changing Circumstances Exhibition and Co-Founder of FotoFest International, and by FotoFest Executive Director and Co-Curator of the Changing Circumstances Exhibition, Steven Evans. The authors will look at the shifting relationships between contemporary art photography, issues of global change, and activism. Co-Founder of FotoFest International and Changing Circumstances Co-Curator Frederick Baldwin, with Watriss and Evans, will provide a philosophical overview of the project in the introduction. The Artists Amy Balkin (USA) Mandy Barker (UK) Daniel Beltrá (Spain) Atul Bhalla (India) Edward Burtynsky (Canada) Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman (USA) Pedro David (Brazil) Luis Delgado-Qualtrough (Mexico/USA) Susan Derges (UK) Nigel Dickinson (UK) Dornith Doherty (USA) David Doubilet (USA) Peter Fend (USA) Roberto Fernández Ibáñez (Uruguay) Karen Glaser (USA) Gina Glover (UK) Ingo Günther (Germany/USA) Niklas Goldbach (Germany) Lucy Helton (UK/USA) Chris Jordan (USA) Isaac Julien (UK) David Liittschwager (USA) Pablo Lopez Luz (Mexico) Evelyn Messinger and Kim Spencer (USA) Vik Muniz (Brazil) Robert Harding Pittman (Germany/USA) Meridel Rubenstein (USA) Joel Sartore (USA) Toby Smith (UK) Jamey Stillings (USA) Martin Stupich (USA) Brad Temkin (USA)