Photographs of Environmental Phenomena

Since well before the debates about global warming and climate change, images have played an important part in bringing changes in nature and the environment to the attention of the general public. Moreover, most of these images have historic precursors. Gisela Parak illuminates how the synergy of photography and science gave rise to a class of photographs of environmental phenomena in the history of the United States of America, and how these images supported and instructed the scientific pursuit of knowledge, and were furthermore used as a persuasive means for directing public opinion.

Auteur
Gisela Parak (PD Dr.) is the director of the Brunswick Museum for Photography, Germany, and teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart and at Brunswick Technical University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, at Washington University, St. Louis, and at the GHI in Washington, D.C. Her work focuses on the history and theory of photography, American cultural history and art history of the 19th and 20th century.

Résumé
»This book will be relevant to any assessment of the current media mechanisms that inform collective understanding of the earth and its ecological dynamics. Young scholars interested in this area would do well to follow up on her notes in order to delve further into the resources she cites.« Graham Burnett, Isis, 6 (2018) »Among the publication's other great merits are Gisela Parak's continuous ambition to embed all photographic images and historical, political, cultural and medial developments in their (trans)national and global contexts.« Susanne Leikam, ICON, 22/4 (2017) »Parak hat in zahlreichen, auch wenig erschlossenen Archiven umfangreich recherchiert und präsentiert eine verknüpfende Auswertung der vielfältigen Dokumente und, in einigen Fällen, überraschende und einleuchtende Neuinterpretationen bekannten Materials.« Ulrike Heine, Rundbrief Fotografie, 24/1 (2017) Besprochen in: Isis, 6 (2018), Graham Burnett