Eminent professional photographers from across the globe are coming together to support the launch of a new environmental initiative whose vision is to act as “The Voice of Photographers Exploring Issues Around Climate Change”.
Their message will be delivered via a website and newsletter, zerofootprints.org, which will showcase extraordinary photography on issues relating to climate change and in doing so to raise awareness, provide links, encourage involvement and directly raise money for charities working in the field.
Professional photographers Ted Leeming and Morag Paterson, who conceived the project, explain “We are increasingly recognizing a need to look forward positively rather than backwards with guilt when discussing our climate. We want people to engage with the concept through the stunning work of leading photographers and then proactively take simple steps to be a part of the solution. Visual messaging is very powerful and often resonates with people emotionally and we want to show people that there is something worth protecting and that solutions are not always complex or difficult”.
For the launch, professional photographers are donating their work free of charge with 100% of the proceeds after printing costs being donated directly to the charity Solaraid. Ted notes, “Solaraid are a grassroots charity doing an amazing job, with over 90% of all donations going to the front line. Every £4 donated buys an LED light which not only offsets over 1 tonne of carbon but offers quantifiable economic, health social and educational benefits to the communities its supports. As such individuals can quantify their personal contribution and we can clearly monitor and feedback via the newsletter which is very important”.
Following the launch any photographer from across the globe will be invited to submit images for consideration on the site and for an ebook which will be released later in the year. Exhibitions, seminars and talks will follow.
The site also hosts the individual “Voices” of photographers, projects that explore and discuss any issue surrounding climate change including energy, waste, transport, heat, consumerism, land use, deforestation & agriculture. The projects can be individual bodies of work or collaborations with other photographers, academia, scientists and artists. The site will act as a hub and allow individuals to then further explore any individual project in more detail through links to other websites, individuals, organisations and communities.
The website will also host a very simple voluntary guide to individuals who wish to offset some or all of their own carbon footprint. Ted is very clear that “We fully recognize that none of us are perfect and that the solution is complex. But it is only through recognition and small, simple acts we can together stimulate change ourselves rather than wait for others do provide all the answers”.
The project was launched last weekend. A global webinar will follow in April and other events will be organised to promote the project throughout the year and the project will keep people informed of new work, initiatives, collaborations, competitions, talks, seminars, exhibitions and webinars via a regular free newsletter that anybody can sign up to.
