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Picturing finitude: Photography of mountain glaciers as a multiple practice of dealing with environmental loss

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  • Lorina Buhr

Abstract

In recent years, photographs and visualisations of glacier retreat have become emblematic images of climate change and its ecological consequences. This paper presents glacier photography as a subtype of environmental photography. I argue that photographs and photographic projects that focus on glacial retreat are best conceived not only as strategies for proving climate change or as visual rhetoric for social transformation, but also as a practice that potentially plays an integral role in dealing and coping with human-induced environmental loss. To this end, I draw on praxeological accounts in theory of photography and philosophy of art as well as some exemplary photographic projects to develop a framework to analyse glacier photography. With the help of this praxeological framework, multiple orientations in glacier photography are identified: epistemic, aesthetic, emotional and evocative, social, ethical, and political orientations. All these photographic orientations, I argue, point in their own way to the process and consequences of glacial disappearance and loss. The framework presented innovatively brings together scholarship on climate change visualisation, imagery and art, the theory of photography, and philosophical aesthetics.

Suggested Citation

  • Lorina Buhr, 2024. "Picturing finitude: Photography of mountain glaciers as a multiple practice of dealing with environmental loss," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(5), pages 550-570, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envval:v:33:y:2024:i:5:p:550-570
    DOI: 10.1177/09632719231221843
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Saffron J. O'Neill & Nicholas Smith, 2014. "Climate change and visual imagery," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(1), pages 73-87, January.
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    3. Lynda Walsh, 2015. "The visual rhetoric of climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(4), pages 361-368, July.
    4. Joanna Nurmis, 2016. "Visual climate change art 2005–2015: discourse and practice," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(4), pages 501-516, July.
    5. Elizabeth A. Allison, 2015. "The spiritual significance of glaciers in an age of climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(5), pages 493-508, September.
    6. Emily Brady, 2022. "Global Climate Change and Aesthetics," Environmental Values, , vol. 31(1), pages 27-46, February.
    7. M Jackson, 2015. "Glaciers and climate change: narratives of ruined futures," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(5), pages 479-492, September.
    8. Emily Boyd & Rachel A. James & Richard G. Jones & Hannah R. Young & Friederike E. L. Otto, 2017. "A typology of loss and damage perspectives," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(10), pages 723-729, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Christine J. Winter, 2024. "Beyond domination and extraction," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(5), pages 469-475, October.
    2. Tom Greaves, 2024. "The ecology of finitude," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(6), pages 579-584, December.

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