10 Comments

Looking at Come By Change on Google Maps and comparing it to the neighbouring Pilliga Nature Reserve, it appears, quite simplistically, that razing the land creates such dust bowl situations. It's not a metaphor, it's cause and effect.

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I agree with Brad below. The problem with metaphors in a story involving science is interpretation. There is ample evidence around but it requires serious research and the experience to know what is different from a few years ago or a few decades ago. Come by Chance in NSW is a dry region and looks dry often. One of the main impacts of climate change in our region is the drying of the forested ranges and coastal areas. For example the subtropical rainforests south of Rockhampton have received about 1.5m less than average rainfall over past 2 years. To the casual observer it might not look any different until a dry hot summer and suddenly you have a rainforest burning like in NSW in 2019. Climate change is one of those subjects that requires photojournalism to tell the story rather than art. I’ve seen so many “drought” images from areas that are usually semi-arid.

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Hey Nick - I agree with you. But don’t we also make images to provide a lyrical interpretation of history. Photographs that provide a glimpse into a way of life at a point in time. I actually think there are better mediums, or tools, than photography, to document and map science. Photography is too subjective and interpretive. It's an interesting conversation.

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Not me , I’m about as literal as knee in the groin. As part of larger bodies of work I find images like that can convey an atmosphere I did that the more you know about an issue the less a single image is “truthful” or accurately depicting the issue you are trying to tell.

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I understand your position but I've always have had a hard time understanding stand alone images that as you say transcend. To my fault, I'm more of literal viewer when thinking about a subject as large as climate change. Since, I live in Arizona water is becoming more of an issue over the past few years. Lake Mead is 135 feet below it's high point. Same with Lake Powell. Water will be reduced in the Central Arizona Canal which feeds metro Phoenix and farming communities south of here. With that said, suburban expansion hasn't slowed one bit. In my humble opinion there needs to be a moratorium on expansion.

Every June there are hug fires due to he hot dry climate. I heard a statistic the other day that 10 percent of Arizona's land mass has burned over the past 10 years. I thought this was a in devastating statistic. We are in an extreme drought and there are signs of it everywhere. In my neighborhood alone there are two 18 hole golf course that have been abandoned because water is so expensive. They have returned to the natural desert. No grass to be seen and the planted tree's are all dead. The only thing living are Palm tree's. This is a big picture problem that deserves a year or more to cover. I know there have been water stories before but a photographer of your depth would do a Pultizer worthy attempt to illustrate the story. only if you had the time and resources.

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Totally agree Brad

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Hi Brad, funnily enough, I'm in Phoenix as I type covering what you suggest - it's so hot. I agree with you actually, stand alone images fail to convey a bigger picture. The image I posted is part of a larger body of work that explores the Australian bush. My framing in this context is about working as a photographer and creating meaningful imagery, more than mapping science. Photography for me is storytelling that brings a human face to issues, and searching for photographs that are metaphoric, even ambiguous, can be an interesting means to connect an audience with raw data. I should go and find the golf courses you suggest!

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Have water at al times. 116 degrees today. The first dead Golf Course is the Lake's 44th st. betwen Knox and Warner Elliot loop in Ahwatukee. The second course is Club West it's between Central Ave. and 17th ave.

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You too Brad. Thank you for the advice on the dead golf courses, I'll check them out.

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I'm late to this, but when we think about a topic as large as climate change — or maybe any significant change, really — there's the who, what, where, when, why kind of objective reporting about the physical changes, their causes and impacts. It's important that that be objective. But there's also a change in mood, a change in hope, a change in outlook, in feeling, in social connection and human condition which is also an important type of document.

The most powerful pictures of our time don't aren't powerful for their objective record of events. It's because they connect us to how it might've felt to be there, or they awaken an empathy in us for the situation. The more personal, the more universal.

The golden rule, IME, is that such work shouldn't proclaim to scientific, "straight" journalism by considering how people might respond to the work. I think it's important to consider in the editing that if we're shooting a dry area that's always been dry, with a caption about increasing dryness — maybe it works as a metaphor for people considering the issue broadly but how would locals respond? What does that do to the credibility of the work? How could that affect the wider discussion?

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