[Applause]
what do you see when you look at this
photograph lights shades colors tones an
aesthetic abstract rendering that's
appealing to the eye at least that's
what I was thinking the first time I saw
it six years ago now what do you see
when you look closer something much more
sinister turn out to be a few ships and
a whole lot of oil this is an aerial
photograph taken by Spanish photographer
Daniel Ventura of the BP Deepwater
Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
in 2010 it's extraordinarily beautiful
green and orange landscape takes a
completely different meaning once you
grasp the environmental catastrophe that
hides behind its shades of blue a
hundred and thirty-four million gallons
of oil that are still destroying the
oceanic habitat a decade later
thousands of marine animals immediately
and Laden lee killed
i'm Rosario Liberty Harrah's Mathias and
today I want to talk to you about the
future of the image how photography can
be used as a language to educate and
catalyze real change I didn't know back
then that this was the moment that would
transform my life the book with the
striking cover was the fifth volume of
the very big they're the leading award
and photography and sustainability that
I helped manage today it initially drew
me in with its beauty but it kept me
hooked with a horrifying and inescapable
message the reality of what we're doing
to our planet it introduced me to a
world where rather than documenting
endless selfies and avocado toast which
we've all been guilty of doing
photography is used as a language to
transmitted the most pressing social and
environmental issues facing humanity
today so today as we explore some of the
work of some of the greatest
photographers alive I want you to stop
and take a moment to think about your
relationship to the image but why you
might be asking yourself well if you've
listened to the podcast that I hosts a
lens on sustainability you might have
heard Jeff Rosenheim curator of
photography at the Met in New York say
we are living in an ocular era Jeff
argues that you cannot be literate in
the world today if you don't understand
the power dynamics between the image and
the world and he's right the first
permanent cameras of the early 19th
century were complex they required time
a darkroom hours of exposure today the
photograph has become ubiquitous
everyone can take a picture if I were to
ask you to take out your phone right now
how many images would you find on your
camera roll sixty six hundred six
thousand and how many of these are
actually meaningful how many are just
static noise we are bombarded by images
everywhere we look
blown up on Billboard's as we walk down
the streets on menus at restaurants
texts from friends magazines television
and of course social media take a look
at this photograph titled 24 hours of
photographs by Eric Kessel who was
nominated for the pretty big thing
during its seventh cycle Kessel printed
out all images uploaded to the Internet
in a 24 hour period
- literally reproduce the amount of
space taken up in our heads by other
people's experiences over 1 million
pictures line the walls of this room
this picture was taken in 2010 how many
images would line this room today how
many
rooms will we need for the incoming
decade Flickr Pinterest Instagram
Facebook all of these platforms
transgress the public and the private
blurring and recasting our identities as
they bear and overshare the intimate
details of other people's lives and many
of these images are photoshopped to
create unsustainable and unreachable
archetypes that make life seem
unbearable to those of us who view them
as a consequence we are already seeing
alarming rates of mental health illness
in the people who view these platforms
the most Millennials and generation said
teenagers are increasingly facing
anxiety depression eating disorders that
are catalyzed by the disparities between
their online and offline persona the
cost in comparison to their peers
artificial online life the constant
pressure to be happy young women like me
are particularly affected by these
photoshopped images that only show
younger and prettier and healthier
versions of ourselves so not only has
the photographic image become fake news
its overconsumption has made us
desensitized to its message and yet the
photograph remains humankind's universal
language a photo is worth a thousand
words I'm sure you've heard that one
before but it remains fundamentally true
you do not need to utter a word to
communicate it speaks through the image
alone in a million different ways to a
million different people it allows you
to experience the world in the eyes of
another so how do we recognize a good
photograph from the neverending stream
of images sent our way for me this is
where the sublime comes in the sublime
is
mind as impressing on the mind with a
sense of grandeur or power inspiring
veneration ah I first came across this
word while growing up in Mexico City I
took an art history class where my
professor described Caspar David
Frederick's wander above the sea of fog
a sublime if you have no idea what I'm
talking about don't worry it's a 19th
century oil painting that shows a man
standing on a cliff side staring out
into a sea of fog and the roaring waves
that crash against the wall the rocks he
stands on his back is to the viewer
showing the smallness of man in the face
of something as grand as this sea it is
both beautiful and terrifying and I
think life and all that comes with it
love death loneliness melancholy it's
both beautiful and terrifying and I
think really great photographs
photographs that do not allow the
audience the luxury of feigning
ignorance and ignoring their message all
have the sublime in them an image that
is so beautiful and not beauty and its
appeal to pleasure but in its sublime
beauty it draws you in and it is only
after you are inevitably in its grasp
that you fully understand the innate
message it is trying to transmit let's
look at some examples Irish photographer
Richard Moss won the Prix pic there in
2017 for his series heat maps this image
is intriguing a puzzle you want to
detangle by the time you realize this
starry campsite is in fact a migrant
encampment housing refugees from the
Middle East and North Africa in Greece
it is too late to remain under
impressive and complex compounds these
camps are sanctuaries to thousands only
to disappear months later leaving no
trace of the life and horrors they
witnessed the sublime power of this
image its enormity only increases when
you find out that mas use the
military-grade thermographic camera that
is registered as a weapon under
international law to take this picture
a cold technology that reduces the
humanizes its subject as an objective
enemy produces this sublime image that
humanizes it once more through their
body language the very evidence that
they are alive now that is what I mean
by an image speaking a thousand words a
second example of sublime imagery can be
found in Mandi Barker's beyond drifting
imperfectly known animals I was
instantly attracted to these images the
first time I saw them they show a light
fluttering floating organism that is in
case by what seems to be a scientific
microscope enchanted I turned to learn
more and it turned out that Mandy was
photographing plastic in bodies of water
as if it were one more microscopic
marine organism she normalized the
plastic as one more animal in the water
and I actually interviewed Mandy and she
told me that these images seduced with
fluttering colors that make the viewer
confront the chilling degradation and
contamination of our natural environment
how plastic particles have seeped into
every corner of our planet as if that is
their place when it is not yet the
beyond rifting series is only one part
of a huge
ongoing project that mandy has called
soup here's another image from soup that
I would call sublime a galaxy of
footballs hundreds of disregarded balls
from the FIFA World Cup 2014 that have
washed up on beaches across the world
mandy collected and photographed each
one of these layering them on Photoshop
to create this breathtaking image we see
trash every day we see images of plastic
taking up space everywhere inside whales
and turtles beaches and forests
occupying entire islands yet still we
throw our trash some of us do it with a
hint of conscious guilt that is quickly
pushed away
it is images like this that captivate
and make you confront where your trash
actually ends up in the interview that I
did with Mandy for the podcast she told
me that hundreds of people that have
heard about the soup project have sent
her plastic objects from the beaches
that they visit around the world so this
has now become a communal project and
even if you can't take a picture like
this yourself you can still teach
yourself to spot these images and share
their message and while sharing
something is no substitute for physical
action it can still inspire collective
action and awareness there are many
other images we can talk about
processing trauma in Joanna tamales
sabalan
raus McDonald's limbs of improvised
prosthetic legs
Gideon Mendel's submerged portraits so
what happens when an image like this
takes its own life something incredible
Gideon's images are being used as
cardboard shields in climate change
protests around the world these
particular images travel through
networks until they reached a person who
recognized their sublime value and use
them to speak a thousand words
Gideon's message reached thousands so
what is the feature of the image with
the rise of the smartphone camera and
digital media it's definitely here to
stay so we must become sensitized to its
message once more we must eliminate the
noise and unearth an unspoken language
that can inspire change with so much
information at our disposal it is
tempting to turn it all off do not allow
yourself to ignore these inspiring
stories today information is exponential
and at our fingertips one Google search
away so it is our responsibility to
pursue these incredible stories if you
feel the seduction of the sublime in an
image that has already been taken or a
moment in your life that begs to be
captured let yourself be seduced stop
scrolling
and inform yourself share it stop
walking and take that picture share it
empower yourself to discover the sublime
you should because you can thank you for
coming to my talk
[Applause]