Nature Photography: Coexistence (No. 52): Shades of Climate Crisis and Hope is not Enough

30 December 2019

Lens:

Shades of Climate Crisis Photomontage; All Rights Reserved 2019 Sally W. Donatello

Click onto image to enlarge. Let me know your response to this photomontage. Prints are available upon request.

Pens:

May Stevens (1959-2019) once said of her life as a painter and an activist: “The idea was to make your own life by taking action and going beyond ordinary existence. Just earning a living, not living a mental life, and not trying to change things was a life that was frightening to me. You become human only when you make this great struggle for realizing your life and making it count.”

 

My Ode to 2020:

Winter officially arrived a little over a week ago, yet the last few weeks have been unseasonable cold and grey. And as the days continue to lighten glacially, my mood fits that trajectory. Still, I cling to the optimist in me, knowing that each day leads to greater illumination.

Over the last few months I have been assessing and processing the intersection between my ideology, philosophy and photography. This process has led me to review my blog and its evolution of content over almost nine years (which astounds me). The journey has led to my own tipping point about this work—work that started with some direction, but escalated into a precise direction: to honor the interaction between nature and human nature.

As the New Year appears with its own cadence, an artist friend and I will meet frequently to experiment and encourage each other’s sense of seeing the world and affects upon our creative works. Inner and outer forces have brought me to this fork in the road.

In the Lens section is a biomorphic photomontage that solicits thoughts about the climate crisis and the worldwide alert that couldn’t be more alarming. My image shows a fragmented silhouette of multiple trees against the dark and some light in the background—a background that forecasts crisis.

We have a decade (give or take) to change this harrowing reality. Each of us can discover ways to steady our own emotional reaction by actions, doing something in our tiny teeny slice of the universe. In whatever way that “doing” translates, it can help us through the days and nights.

I have been aware for decades about living more sustainably and earth friendly, and I continue to do more. But the urgency mounts. My photography and writing are avenues to maneuver the minefields of this human-made crisis.

I keep anxiously waiting and asking: When will the course of the river’s flow change? When will the greater good of humanity and the planet outweigh the greed and power lust of my governmental officials and others around our spinning globe?

Time is ticking faster than I can breathe it inward. Its sound is louder than the silence. But we can do it; we can turn the corner toward healing the planet and ourselves.

Personal awareness through individual activism, community activism and worldwide activism are my dearest wishes for the world’s healthy rejuvenation and renewal. Hope is not enough; our actions and voices are the light in the Earth’s future.

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