Hello, My Name Is Climate Change (WIP)

In northeastern Pennsylvania, it snows in the winter, the leaves turn to a luminous shade of orange in the crisp fall air, and there are thunderstorms in the dead of summer. Growing up, I have watched the winter days shift to dumping inches of rain instead of snow. The autumn leaves are ripped off the trees in a thunderstorm before the colors have peaked, and the typical summer thunderstorms have turned into tornadoes. 

Climate change is a heavily debated topic and opinions about the subject vary across the United States. I made this work in response to my concern for the growing climate crisis. The idea grew from a conversation with Elliot Ross about using art as activism and being exposed to Jim Goldberg’s way of storytelling through mixed media. 

My process begins with photographing landscapes around the Lehigh Valley where signs of climate change are present or where nature and man intersect. I then print the photographs and send them to people around the United States. Participants write their thoughts about the subject directly onto the photograph. Embedding facts and opinions into the image’s composition is important in confronting the viewer with a discussion that may have otherwise been avoided. Upon receiving their responses, I scan the photograph, record their current homebase on a map, and track their age in a bar graph. In addition to participants’ responses, straight photographs and mixed media collages are included in this body of work prompting quiet moments of reflection or intense moments of confrontation. 

This body of work gives a voice to people across the United States to state their opinions, fears, uncertainties, or impassivity about climate change.