Posts on the topic of the Environment.

Chatting The Pictures: Old Glory, Trump, and the L.A. Fire Disasters

The Visual Politics of the LA Fires

From a man rescuing Old Glory to a haunting ‘stairway to nowhere,’ key photos from LA’s devastating fires expose America’s most profound social divisions inflamed by Trump’s sabotage. By Michael Shaw In our latest short Chatting the Pictures video, Cara and I analyze a defining image from the LA fires: a...

“Climate Ecstasy” and More: Our Photography Round-Up

It’s true—people value the pictures we choose just as much as what we have to say about them. By Michael Shaw   One problem with our 24/7 media culture is that news that didn’t happen today or yesterday is treated like stale bread. That’s a shame, especially when it...

If This Summer is Anything Like the Last

If this summer is anything like the last, the climate crisis will destroy more norms, we will gasp, then forget, and photographers will continue to skewer our denial. By Michael Shaw Last summer, scorching temperatures shattered heat records in the Southwest and Europe. Lahaina, the historic Hawaiian resort, was...

Blind to the Apocalypse: The Climate Emergency has Fallen Off the Radar

If the climate this summer is anything like the last, we will gasp, then forget, and photographers will continue to skewer our denial.

Notes on that Transcendent Border Eclipse Photo

The image of the Border Patrol agent and the migrant detainees is truly inspiring. But what makes it work as well as it does, and what context and caution should we consider when thinking about it? By Michael Shaw In a striking photograph captured by José Gaytán for El...

Pictures Worth Noting: Extreme Symbolism and Arresting Juxtapositions

We're thrilled to introduce a new newsletter feature: "Pictures Worth Noting." Today's focus ranges from climate, to politics, to the border.

Chatting the Pictures: Personal Meets Political in Undersea Climate Change Portraits

We survey the powerful blending of portraiture and landscape and the brilliant tension between domesticity and disaster in this photo project.

Chatting the Pictures: Coexisting with a Steadily Rising Sea

In the video, we contrast the vibrant elements of this Javanese portrait with the irony and cultural loss from the advance of climate change.

Climate Activism’s Death Valley Daze

Climate activists have been otracized and left morally burdened by the lack of mass, top down acknowledgement of global heating.

Chatting the Pictures: The Climate’s Dark Harvest

As striking as it is ominous, this disorienting photo is a powerful indictment of the social and environmental impact of extreme heat.

Chatting the Pictures: NYC’s Children of the Smoke

The sight of smoke descending on NYC was otherworldly. The emotional fallout from the Canadian wildfires, especially on children, was also.

Chatting the Pictures: Viral Photo of Winter Firestorm From CO Hospital

It's all there in one painterly photo: winter wildfire, the growing climate threat to the suburbs, and medical workers reduced to spectators.

At the Tipping Point: So Much for the Pioneer Spirit

2021 represented a climate change tipping point. In recounting key visual markers, we call out two images from the Dixie Fire.

Doubled Over By Ida

2021 was a climate tipping point. And among the catastrophes, this blow from Hurricane Ida seemed to speak to a larger fate.

Chatting the Pictures: A Telling Photo of a Cold Stricken Texas and the Heat About a Blackout

Blackout photos got Texans steaming after a historic freeze knocked out heat, power, and water. This picture proves telling in every detail.

Whirling Fire Storm Photo: The New Unfathomable

Fire photos this ominous come at a premium. But this photo from California captures the new otherworldly state of the climate crisis.

Global Heating and Fire: California Jumps the Gap

It's not just a bad fire season. These photos both symbolize and demonstrate how California has crossed a critical climate threshold.