Photographer Hopes To Draw Attention To Global Warming With Magnificent Polar Photos
Mar 6, 2015
Share:
What started as a journey to capture the icebergs and splendor of the Arctic and Antarctica has become a photographer’s attempt to battle climate change with her photos.
Camille Seaman spent a decade photographing icebergs and wildlife in some of the harshest environments on Earth until she decided to stop her polar trips in 2011, as there was almost no ice left.
“There was nothing on the radar for ice,” said the San Francisco bases photographer, adding that they could have continued sailing to the North Pole had they had enough fuel.
“I can’t say making a photo is very important. In fact I feel sad it’s all I can do. But that’s what I can do so that’s what I’m gonna do”.
While the evidence that humans are responsible for the global climate change is overwhelming, even non-believers will enjoy Seaman’s fascinating photos.
Seaman, who is part Native American, believes her environmental awareness stems from her childhood spent near the Shinnecock Reservation. Almost as far as it gets from icebergs, living in the New York state reservation her grandfather instilled in her an appreciation for nature.
“He really required that you stop at each tree and acknowledge it physically, place your hands on it and feel its life force, its physical structure, and understand it’s a relative to you”.
Seaman captured her photos while working as an expedition photographer on science vessels and commercial ships, and although she stopped travelling to the Polar Regions she continues to document the impact of global warming.
Being the first photographer ever to be invited as an artist in residence, Seaman has been documenting what CBC called “America’s Ground Zero for climate change” – Alaska’s Denali National Park.
“No one can deny what Alaskans are experiencing and witnessing first-hand”, said Seaman.
The photographer stated she’s part of the problem regarding her decision to stop her Polar journeys. When asked for her opinion regarding photographers travelling to such areas, in hopes of drawing attention with their photos, Seaman told DIYP the following:
“My opinion is that I have no right to tell anyone whether they should or should not go to some place. What I do say is that I hope that anyone that does go to any fragile or remote place walk with the utmost care and respect. So often I see visitors to such places act with arrogance or disrespect”.
Seaman has shared her photos and thoughts on a TED talk (below) and in a book called “Melting Away: A Ten-Year Journey through Our Endangered Polar Regions”.
Unlike the previous iceberg photos that we shared, Camille has not been accused of copyright infringement.
You can see more of Camille Seaman’s photos on her website.
[via CBC]
Liron Samuels
Liron Samuels is a wildlife and commercial photographer based in Israel. When he isn’t waking up at 4am to take photos of nature, he stays awake until 4am taking photos of the night skies or time lapses. You can see more of his work on his website or follow him on Facebook.
Related Posts
Heartbreaking video of starving polar bear shows the devastating impact of global warming
This year’s Nature TTL POTY winner puts global warming right in our faces
Heart-warming photos show an unlikely friendship between orphaned rhino and zebra babies
Photographer takes magnificent photos of great white shark 12 feet in the air
Join the Discussion
DIYP Comment Policy
Be nice, be on-topic, no personal information or flames.
8 responses to “Photographer Hopes To Draw Attention To Global Warming With Magnificent Polar Photos”
“While the evidence that humans are responsible for the global climate change is overwhelming,” … uh, no!
“I find the CET data rejects the hypothesis of “climate change” (>58%) & current “global warming” (>72%) and that overall global temperature has not changed significantly more than would be expected.”
http://scottishsceptic.co.uk/2015/03/06/proof-recent-temperature-trends-are-not-abnormal/
…and the other half of the sentence read: “even non-believers will enjoy Seaman’s fascinating photos.” Nice job in cherry-picking HALF a sentence. This is a photography blog where everything regarding PHOTOGRAPHY is discussed. If you have an article which directly addresses how photography stops or starts climate change, I’d love to see it. Preferably an article published is a reputable peer-reviewed scientific journal such as Nature or Science rather than something posted on a blog by a self-proclaimed climate scientist.
When they said children won’t know what snow is … it seems they were talking about your kind of ignorance of science.
You are not a scientist, let alone a climate scientist. You have not done a Bachelor of Science let alone a PhD in climatology. You have never published ANYTHING in any science journal EVER! What you do is akin to someone who has done half a year of Med school who then decides that they are a self-proclaimed expert in anything medical despite having never practiced in a hospital. What you are is a forum troll dumping unqualified click-bait links to your skeptic blog, nothing more, nothing less. If you have an article which you’ve written and published in a scientific journal, you know the ones where SCIENTISTS publish their work in, we’d love to see it. Otherwise everyone can consider your rhetoric nothing more than unqualified hot air!
I have a physics degree worked in the wind industry designing and installing temperature control and monitoring equipment and I have now studied climate science for about.
And your qualification is what? Media studies?
And who said “won’t know what snow is”? I did not see that quote anywhere in the article.
Anyone saying that does not understand climate change at all. Some areas will get warmer and some will get colder. For instance, all of England is going to get to know what snow is. Their climate is going to be that of Canada if things keep going the way they are.
Anyone that says “it was warm out, it’s the damn global warming”, or “it snowed today, climate change is false” doesn’t understand climate change at best, and at worst is being willfully ignorant.
If you remove the wool from your eyes and ACTUALLY consider another side, you’ll find the evidence against man made global warming…ahem, (let’s rebrand this to account for ALL changes in weather) climate change is overwhelming….
I wanted to just enjoy the photos but before I could do that I was told the “evidence” was conclusive. Of course the evidence is a link telling me that a “Consensus: 97% of climate scientists agree”. Consensus is not science. It is science when you take that hypothesis and back it up with repeatable results or observations.
According to NASA’s own satellite observations, there’s been no appreciable change in global temperatures in 17 years. Here’s link bait for you http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1997/essd06oct97_1/
The photographer observed there was so little Arctic ice in 2011, she could have sailed to the North Pole. The NASA-funded National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) reported in September 2013 the sheet had recovered 1.38 million sq km (533,000 sq miles) of ice by August 2013 from August of 2012. Yachts were getting stuck in the ice trying to navigate the Northwest passage. I wonder if what was observed was cyclical and had nothing to do with AGW?
I note the author of the blog used the word “non-believers” to desctibe skeptics in AGW. It’s apt since AGW has become a religious belief and all non-believers must be banished and silenced. That’s how you get a 97% consensus.