Widening the Lens

Contemporary artists reestablishing ecological awareness through the powerful instrument of photography.

How has humanity's relationship with the land been documented by, and altered through, photography? How has the ever-increasing pace of image-making changed the environment and human ecology? These are the driving questions of Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape, a publication inspired by a generation of contemporary artists who have endeavored to chart the past, present and potential futures of photography and the landscape.

Through a collection of essays, poetry and newly commissioned artwork, Widening the Lens aims to ignite renewed ecological awareness through visual representations of the environment that reveal underlying historical, social, geological and political processes. The publication includes an introduction by Dan Leers, curator of photography, Carnegie Museum of Art; an essay by renowned curator, writer and activist Lucy R. Lippard; a new commission from poet Saretta Morgan; and an epilogue by award-winning environmental and science journalist Michelle Nijhuis.