Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape

Landscape photographs contain a multitude of stories about natural spaces and the people connected to them. In the first episode of Widening the Lens, archaeologist Rachael Z. DeLue and historian Tyler Green critically examine dominant narratives about land, identity, and history generated by early landscape photography, and artist Sky Hopinka considers creating alternative archives that combine the personal with the poetic.

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Image: Sky Hopinka, Cowboy Mouth 2 (Yoiréreginagere), 2022; © Sky Hopinka. Courtesy of the artist

Photographic archives offer a powerful means to narrate history and produce knowledge, but how can they be used in a recuperative way to confront the past? Episode 2 brings together artist A.K. Burns and poet Natalie Diaz to reflect on lost landscapes and cultural erasure, while geologist Marcia Bjornerud invites listeners to view the earth itself as an archive of geologic and human history that can be read and understood as it evolves over time.

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Image: A.K. Burns, before the wake, 2014; © A.K. Burns, Courtesy of the artist

The third episode of Widening the Lens looks at how artists are thinking about the history of public land and the ways in which discriminatory policies have long defined who has access to natural spaces. Ornithologist and writer J. Drew Lanham explores this tension through his family history, while artist Xaviera Simmons, curator Candice Hopkins, and filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat convene to reconsider landscapes as sites that can forge solidarity amidst environmental and political concerns.

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Image: Xaviera Simmons, Sundown (Number Two), 2018, Courtesy of the artist and David Castillo, Miami © Xaviera Simmons

Since its inception, photography has helped perpetuate myths about the American landscape that obscure more complex experiences. To get a sense of how these myths influence our relationship to land today, science writer William L. Fox traces connections between mythmaking and human cognition throughout history, while artists Sam Contis, Mark Armijo McKnight, and Raven Chacon discuss how their work counters and breaks these myths by reframing the protagonists and narratives we typically see enacted in the landscape.

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Image: Mark A. McKnight, The Grave of Love, 2021, © Mark Armijo McKnight, Courtesy of the artist and Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery

Photography can be a tool to visualize bodily attachments to land. In Episode 5, artist David O. Alekhuogie and geologist Kathryn Yusoff engage in a powerful dialogue about how various conditions that define the contemporary landscape are reflected in the human body, shaping how we physically move through and experience our environment. Saretta Morgan expands on this idea through a newly commissioned poem that considers even deeper connections between body and place in which geology, history, and photography interact.

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Image: David O. Alekhuogie, Firestation 30, Mom's garden (35.585620, -34.126420, -117.537730), 2021, © David Alekhuogie. Courtesy of Yancey Richardson, New York

How can photography help people better understand their environment amidst an era of rapid development and climate change? In the final episode of Widening the Lens, artists Edra Soto, Victoria Sambunaris, and Dionne Lee discuss how photography helps them bear witness to the constantly changing American landscape, and the ways in which art can help us move forward at this critical juncture.

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Image: Victoria Sambunaris, Untitled (red car), Searles Valley, CA, 2020, © Victoria Sambunaris. Courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson

Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape is a podcast that spotlights different facets of the relationship between photography and the environment.

Hosted by tennis champion, entrepreneur, and arts advocate Venus Williams, Widening the Lens features artists, writers, poets, philosophers, and environmentalists in dialogue alongside archival audio, historical anecdotes, sonic experiences, and curatorial interviews.

Visit us at carnegieart.org/podcast to listen and to experience exclusive Widening the Lens content, or tune in where ever you listen to your podcasts.