Submit two photographs for a public exhibition entitled ‘Photography’s Response To The Climate Crisis’ in your area. The event will display work that considers the relationship between photography and the decaying environment. Your entry will consist of a series of images showcasing a subject that explores this idea. You are free to choose the concept and subject for your photographs so long as they meet the theme and topic for your project.

Theme - Photography’s response to the climate crisis

Topic - Challenging political and personal views of climate change through art, design, and media

I have outlined 3 key stages of the development work I carried out;

1st - Concept development

2nd - The photoshoot

3rd - Post-production

Below are my final two images selected to represent the brief given. These images are my interpretation of the theme and topic and I have used aerial photography and the top-down view to convey my message. This top-down view was selected as I felt this was a different way to portray the subject of climate change to other photographer’s work. In the research for this project looking at local government literature and websites I found no local photographs which used this technique.

Image ‘47°57'43.24“N 13° 48' 56.81“E’ could be seen to highlight over framing of a single crop which is a local concern of farmers in my community, which they state is damaging to the soil and land.

Image ‘47°58'50.4"N 13°49'11.7"E’ shows a full carpark where cars sit all day unused and just wasting space and resources, I feel this image could be used to push the message of using local public transport in the region.

Both images are technically sound, being in focus and well exposed however the composition in both is a little tight and I think I would use a wider lens if I were to redo the photographs. The combine-harvester was a real bonus as if enables scale to be defined. I also like the way both images show humans influence on nature with the unnatural symmetry and uniformity.

To really dig into the given topic and theme, I researched how other artists had approached them. It was interesting to see how others using the technique of ariel photography had put a story together which reflected both the topic and theme.

The works by Daniel Beltra, Yann Artus Bertrand and Pablo Luz really stood out to me, and I used these as a starting point in my own creative interpretation for my local area.

My work is of course quite different to the precedents I researched, as these kinds of images are of a location and area which are unique, and this is true for my images also which are in Austria.

I knew since I didn’t have access to a helicopter! That I would be using a drone to capture the images I had planned in my logbook. Drone photography is a relatively new pursuit and there are some skills and processes which need to be implemented to enable a successful shoot, these include passing an exam to fly the drone as well as the associated health and safety along with knowing the regulations in the area you wish to fly. There is also a requirement to be insured, with the list of things to remember growing, I implemented a ‘photography shoot check list’ which can be seen in my visual diary and logbook. This checklist worked incredibly well and gave me the confidence that I hadn’t overlooked anything.

From the final two images I selected to submit a link can be seen from my research in assignment 13, which was great as I didn’t have to try to develop the concept during the shoot. The only thing I feel my images did suffer from was the new drone restriction on hight which is now set at 120m above ground level, this restriction along with the lens type (not wide enough) did slightly compromise the composition I was going for, in my mind, a wider view of the scene would have had more impact, but all in all I’m happy enough with the results.

Do the images portray ‘Photography’s response to the climate crisis’ and ‘Challenging political and personal views of climate change through art, design, and media’? Its hard to say and as with all art, this is for the viewer to say.

I’ve included a map of the area I photographed for context.

Below you can find my video to the gallery committe outlining the work I produced and the reasons I feel it meets the brief.