Have you ever stopped to think about the images we see in relation to climate change? All too often, these visuals may be aesthetically pleasing and informative, but they lack the emotional impact and significance to truly drive change. That’s where Climate Visuals comes in.
Climate Visuals is a project from the creative minds at Climate Outreach that’s working to innovate the visual language of climate change. They’ve launched major initiatives to visualize the effects of climate change, promote diversity in outdoor photography, and represent indigenous communities in images. They showcased their work at the COP26 conference in Glasgow and reputable outlets like The Guardian used it.
But Climate Visuals isn’t just about creating visually appealing images. They believe that for imagery to drive positive action on climate change, it needs to be people-centred and solution-focused, and must resonate with the viewer’s identity and values – not just those of environmentalists. That’s why they’ve based their approach on international social research in Europe and the US and have developed seven core principles for effective visual communication.
The Seven Climate Visuals principles
- Show ‘real people’ not staged photo-ops
- Tell new stories
- Show climate causes at scale
- Climate impacts are emotionally powerful
- Understand your audience
- Show local (but serious) climate impacts
- Be very careful with protest imagery
Since its launch in 2016, Climate Visuals has accumulated over 1,000 images in its collection, all of which embody its evidence-based principles. This library of images and guidelines is designed to help photographers, commissioning editors, and publishers select photography that goes beyond illustration and has a positive impact.
In short, Climate Visuals is doing amazing work to drive engagement and promote positive action on climate change. And they’re not done yet – they’re currently seeking new funding and partnerships to expand their efforts even further.
An Open Call for Photography
TED Countdown and Climate Visuals have come together to launch a photography project called “Visualizing Climate Change.” The aim of this project is to create a collection of images that document the effects of climate change and showcase positive solutions in five key areas: energy, transportation, materials, food, and nature.
Photographers can submit their work to be included in this collection, which will aim to visually communicate the reality of climate change and the importance of finding sustainable solutions. This project is a unique opportunity to showcase the impact of photography in raising awareness and inspiring action on a crucial global issue.
Registrations will open on 19 May @ www.climatevisuals.org.
The featured image of this post is from Climate Visuals archive.
BLUE CARBON, KELP FORESTS UNDERWATER
Magical kelp forests create beautiful habitats and shelter for a whole host of sea life, but they also reduce the rate of global warming. As well as growing extremely fast, kelp exports a large portion of its biomass into the deep sea, allowing it to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
City: Peniche
Region: Leiria
Country: Portugal
14/07/2019
Agency: Climate Visuals Countdown
Creative Commons
Mandatory Credit: Nuno Vasco Rodrigues / Climate Visuals Countdown
Photographer name, Nuno Vasco Rodrigues
Photographer based in Portugal
Social media: https://www.instagram.com/nuno_vasco_rodrigues/
Website: www.nunovascorodrigues.com
