Redlass's Full Review: Joe Zammit-lucia - First Steps: Conserving Our Env...
Joe Zammit-Lucia demonstrates in First Steps: Conserving Our Environment how art and photojournalism still have a role to play in changing our world.
First Steps is a photography book with a purpose, an artistic endeavor in which the artist sets out to motivate people to do things about our deteriorating environment. He makes a powerful case with both photos and words.
This over-sized coffee table book goes beyond a simple presentation of beautiful nature pictures. With each image, Zammit-Lucia establishes his artistry. He doesn't simply give us snapshots. Instead, he experiments with lights and black backgrounds. He gives us contrasting pictures framed in a way to provoke thought rather than spell out answers.
In the book's introduction, Zammit-Lucia writes, "I have always been interested by the extent to which artists can use their craft to influence opinion and sway public policy. Literature, painting, drama, cinema and other art forms have a long history of successfully influencing political issues and questions of public policy. In the environmental debate, photography has, perhaps, been at the forefront of artistic engagement with the issues. Nature photography and environmental photojournalism have brought us face to face both with the beauty of nature and with the damage that we wreak."
Perhaps one of the beauties of the book is that he accomplishes this task without ever bludgeoning his readers on the head. He takes a gentle approach, one that is almost optimistic. He seems to be suggesting that if we just take the time to think, to reflect, and to consider, we'll make the right choices. He points out how making the right choices benefits us economically, socially, and environmentally.
Whereas many books about the environment resort to scare tactics and shaming, Zammit-Lucia takes a different route. He seduces us with beauty and makes suggestions that seem to make so much sense that we can't imagine not following them.
First Steps is a book worth looking at over and over again. The cover says the book is based on an exhibition presented at the United Nations. It's easy to see how the images came from an exhibition because they are of the type that invite you to stand in front of them for an extended time to let their beauty and meaning wash over you.
One of the most compelling sets of images in the book was that of a gorgeous, rolling field with an gnarled, old tree slightly off-center to the right far off on the distant horizon. The photo is then repeated at a different season, where the skies and the ground meld into an entirely new color scheme. While the photos alone are eye-catching and beautiful, what makes them even more compelling is the caption of the two photos. It reads: "The agricultural landscape shown once formed part of the mighty Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England. The sole surviving tree is a symbol of extensive de-forestation as forests and woods gave way to agriculture."
Profits from the sale of this book are said to be donated to environmental organizations. The author bio on the book's back flap says he donates all profits from his photography to environmental organizations. The book is also printed on paper that is "made from raw materials certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as sourced from sustainable forests." Given all the care given to environmentally sound practices, it was disappointing to see that the book was published in New York and printed in China--giving the book a greater carbon footprint than is truly necessary.
First Steps is a book that I will treasure and share both because of its provoking imagery and its call to action.
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