下面为大家整理一篇优秀的paper代写范文- Arctic Photography,供大家参考学习,这篇论文讨论了北极摄影。北极摄影的历史可以追溯到18世纪。然而,北极摄影之间的相关性是最近几十年才建立起来的。随着气候变化和全球变暖问题的日益迫切性,摄影将作为公众与北极地区之间的桥梁发挥更加重要的作用。北极摄影作为一种直接的信息来源,被认为是公众与气候变化问题之间最重要的联系。然而,新媒体形式的出现对北极地区的保护构成了潜在的威胁。
Abstract
In establishing the correlation between Arctic photography and climate change, a historic perspective has been adopted by the paper, backed by extensive research. Based on the discovery of the general trends of climate change related Arctic photography, a better understand of the influences of photography on the environment and policies, both positive and negative, will be built.
Introduction
The history of Arctic photography can be traced back to the 18th century. However, the correlation between Arctic photography has only been established in the recent decades. With the increasing urgency of the climate change and global warming issues, photography is going to play a much more important role as the bridge between the public and the Arctic regions. This paper adopts a historic approach to learn about the development of Arctic photographer, and how it gradually shifted its focus through the course of history. As a straight-forward from of information, Arctic photography is considered the most important link between the public and the issue of climate change. Such a link will be justified in different perspectives in the following sections. With the development of mass media and science, Arctic photography has become much more relevant with climate change. The public understanding of climate changes has been significantly enhanced through newspapers and education. The emergence of new forms of media, however, is posing potential threats on the preservation of the Arctic regions. Therefore, learning the historic development of Arctic photography will help people create smarter strategies to guide it into more positive directions, so that the enforcement actual mitigation measures against climate change will be accelerated.
Background
Photographers were among the first to reach the Arctic regions and document the earliest traces of climate change. Explorations of the Arctic region by photographers started since the mid-eighteenth century. The advancements in technology enabled photographers to work under extremely low temperatures without worrying too much about their cameras. In the documentations of the North American Arctic, photographers were focusing mainly on the landscape and local cultures. The process of making these photos were not productive at all, with only a few exposures taken for the entire day spent outdoors. This makes all remaining Arctic photos from the past centuries more valuable to researchers. After the early struggles of decades, new cameras were being developed, and the number of photographers working in the Arctic regions increased dramatically as a result.
In addition to the incredible cultures of the Inuit, early photos have provided people with a glimpse into the past, about the climate change over the past centuries. These changes have also made an impact on the Inuit culture, in which whalers, hunters, and traders were highly dependent on the nature. In addition to culture, wildlife photography in the Arctic regions have also been developing in recent years. One of the most distinguished subjects is the polar bear, whose habitat have been severely damaged due to global warming and sea ice melting. The documentation of both the changing Inuit culture and the loss of polar bear habitat have indirectly raised people’s awareness of climate change and global warming.
In a more recent effort by photographer Diane Tuft, dozens of photos of the melting process in the Arctic Sea have directly demonstrated to people the urgency of climate change from multiple perspectives. The disappearing icecaps in the Arctic Sea, Norway and Greenland were documented and compiled into the photographer’s new book. Through the photos, it has been the hope of Tuft over 10 years to help the public understand the threat posed by global warming, which has made the Arctic region the fastest-melting region in the world. Although the process of generating a wide-scale response from the public and finally an effective policy and solution being proposed would probably take decades, more and more people are hearing the story of Tuft and beginning to see the truth through her photos.
Materials & Method
The link between Arctic photography and climate changes has been established first through research on the historic development of Arctic photography, since it only became popular in recent decades due to the difficulties in technology and cost. Although there has not been extensive research in the link between Arctic photography and climate change, some of the key resources were targeted, such as the analysis of the visual information of climate change in the US newspapers. The approach of the research process can be divided into two phases. The first part focused on the historic developments of Arctic photography and its increasing correlation with climate change. In addition to the temporal outline, different approaches of Arctic photography have also been discussed highlighting the theme of the photography. From the original landscape and cultural themes of Arctic photography, a trend of diversification has been observed. Photos focusing on wildlife, Inuit culture and economy, landscape, aerial photography for scientific purposes as well as commercialization have become the dominant way for people to learn about the Arctic regions and climate change. The results and discussion sections are thus compiled to follow both the timeline of development and the trend of diversification, so that the most comprehensive picture of Arctic photography is created.
Results & Discussions
Historic Developments of Arctic Photography
The earliest attempts of photography in the Arctic regions can be traced back to the mid-18th century. George Rexworthy De Wilde was among the pioneers of Arctic photography, who sailed to the edge of the ice barriers of the Arctic sea and took photos at places where nobody had set foot in (Credland 672). While the information about the type of camera used by De Wilde and the information such as exposure and lens were not recorded, the photos were published in his book soon got attention from other explorers and scientists. The photographs of De Wilde also became the bases where illustrations of the Arctic regions were made in a number of books (Credland 678). De Wilde’s photos also became the motivation for later photographers to start their own explorations of the Arctic. Although the outbreak of the wars in the 19th and the 20th century hindered the development of Arctic photography, it soon revived by the mid-20th century.
After the end of WWII in the 1940s, the Arctic regions went through dramatic changes in society and economy (Condon 80). With the increased populations in the north, more and more attention was being drawn to the Arctic regions. Photography naturally became the most effective tool in documenting the social changes. With the development of technology of the past century, photography was no longer a technique that require extensive training. Researchers and anthropologists were able to use it as a medium themselves to document the clash of traditional and modern cultures. An increasing number of both professional and amateur photographers were heading towards the Arctic region in the pursuit for visually stunning and socially revealing images. Photography was also increasingly used by researchers as supplementary materials to their findings and data.
The early Arctic photography has been widely used in different forms of media, such as scholarly papers, books and textbooks and exhibitions in the museums. These photos thus received a massive audience base thanks to the media, making them an effective tool for the public to gain a better understanding of the culture and society of the Arctic regions. However, the potential of photography in sociology had only been revealed in the 1980s (Condon 84). The northern communities in the United States and the Inuit organizations also came to realize the value of photography for documenting their traditional culture and history. Although the original purpose of Arctic photography was mainly focused on anthropological and aesthetical aspects, the photos featuring the landscapes of the Arctic remain valuable resources for the study of climate change in the present day. With the help of modern technology, the historical photographs are able to provide more information about the past of the Arctic regions, so that climate change can be better understood on a larger temporal scale.
Contribution of the Mass Media, Education and Research
Climate change had not become a topic of interest until the recent decades. The mass media has contributed significantly in familiarizing the public with the issue. Through photography in the mass media such as newspapers, the psychological distance of the public from climate change have been effectively reduced (Duan 356). It has been found that climate change has been portrayed by the US mass media as an urgent and concrete issue in general, instead of being vague and abstract. Despite the efforts of the newspapers, there still exists a misalignment between the truth of climate change and the public perception of it. Photography serves as an effective media in conveying the message that cannot be so directly represented by scientific claims and data. Specificity is within the nature of image, with essential information such as time, location and space. The visual information can create more lasting impacts than other forms of information in the public, which will indirectly prompt the process of mitigation measures.
Increased public awareness about climate change is also originated from the inclusion of materials in the education system. Although the issue has been approached by different education systems differently around the globe, a common feature is shared by them all. An extensive use of photography as the teaching material has been observed in the undergraduate education about climate change (Chang 29). Most of the Arctic photography has been applied in the entry level of environmental studies and climatology courses, to increase the level of interest of the students in the issue. Not only have the historic photographs been used to show the severity of climate change in the temporal scale, more advance technologies have also been introduced for the more quantitative research on climate change.
The source of public understanding of climate change is scientific research. With the development of new technologies, science is making photography more relevant in the quantitative studies of climate change, even for photos with a relatively long history. To determine the change in the volume of ice in glacial environments, a technology of least-square-based surface matching has been developed. Historic as well as present day photography has been used to determine the reduction in the volume of ice in the Arctic regions. The new technology has ensured the accuracy of measurement even when the change in ice volume is as small as 0.6% (Miller 1978). While photography was considered for documenting purposes with the lack of accuracy, the ASTER-based matching process has significantly expanded the field of application of photography in climatology. With similar technologies developed, the extensive archives of Arctic aerial photography will carry more scientific significance in the future.
Arctic Photography and Conspicuous Modern Consumerism
With the increasingly uneven distribution of social wealth in the modern society, consumerism has become a symbol for social class and identity. While the wealthy social class seek more variety and creativity in their leisure activities, people from other social classes try to mimic them so that they can get “upgraded” in social status. It has thus become a fashion to escape from the daily routine and commit to non-productive yet romantic leisure and consumption (Varul 114). Driven by such a trend, the Arctic region becomes a new place of interest for the rich, which has indirectly prompted the interest of photography in the Arctic regions. The Arctic has been drawn closer to the public and consumers through modern photography. The implications of modern consumerism and photography will have an impact on climate change for sure, but it is still uncertain whether the influence would be positive or negative.
Photographers such as Chris Burkard have found the Arctic regions the new destination of interest (500px ISO). By taking photos of people doing Arctic surfing, Burkard successfully brings Arctic within reach of commercialization. There will be more and more people influenced by such photos to start learning more about the Arctic and even going down there themselves. The psychological distance between the Arctic and the public is further reduced, which can be a way to promote the understanding of climate change indirectly. However, there may also be a potential of increased pollution as a result of the commercialization.
Climate Change Publications from Different Perspectives
The urgency of climate change has motivated many photographers to set sail to the Arctic and take photos of the disappearing ice. In the book by Diane Tuft, photographs of the melting icebergs in the ocean and the retreating ice barriers have become the most direct way for the readers to understand the urgency of the situation. Tuft has travelled to different locations in the Arctic region, combining personal thought and reflections with the photos, so that the impact of the photos is further enhanced (Tuft 16). Many of the photos taken by Tuft has also become part of the collections of renowned museums, widening the audience seeing the images.
Shelley Wright approaches the problem from a cultural perspective, by establishing the correlation between climate change and the Inuit culture. Our Ice is Vanishing: A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Climate Change is a book about the impact of climate change on the Inuit society. The photographs contained in the book becomes the most powerful rhetoric in appealing for actions to slow down climate change. Although it is the perception of many that the climate change is an ongoing process, the truth is it has already affected a substantial amount of population, especially those whose lives depend on the ocean (Wright 2). Such an appeal for compassion is more commonly seen with wildlife, since they are unable to relocate like humans. The book of Ian Stirling is among the early publications about the climate change and how the polar bear species has been influenced by it (Stirling 19). In recent years, pictures of polar bears struggling to survive on melting ice has gained continuous attention around the globe. The effective in conveying the message makes photography featuring wildlife one of the most popular themes of Arctic photography.
Conclusion
Visualization is one of the most important ways of communicating a message effectively to the public, and photography has provided the public such an opportunity to see the Arctic without having to go there (Schneider 33). From the path of development of Arctic photography, it can be observed that is connection with climate change was not established since the beginning. Instead, the importance of Arctic photography for climate change awareness has only been established in recent years. The mass media (newspaper) and education have been the major contributor to the influence of Arctic photography, as they serve as the platform for the photos to be seen by more audiences. A trend of diversification in terms of the theme of Arctic photography has also been noted. While the original landscape and cultural themes remain influential in Arctic photography, new trends have been emerging featuring wildlife in the Arctic regions, which becomes even more effective in leading to actions against climate change. With the trend of commercialization, photography has also brought the Arctic region closer to the public.
Photography has thrived in traditional mass media, but its growth in the new media and on the internet, has been unprecedented. Posed as the solution to the visualization problem for the public, Arctic photography has made the issue of climate change more relevant to the public, which may result in their direct actions to reduce carbon emissions on the individual level (Sheppard 25). With the help of more advanced visual analysis technologies and instructiveness of the new forms of media, Arctic photography is going to play a more significant role in promoting public awareness of climate change (Schneider 192). This is the crucial step in the process from vision to action and wider range of public support.
Works Cited
500px ISO. “Chris Burkard at TED: The Joy of Arctic Surf Photography.” [Web]. 2015. Retrieved on 29 June 2017 from: https://iso.500px.com/chris-burkard-at-ted-the-joy-of-arctic-surf-photography/
Chang, Chew H. Climate Change Education: Knowing, Doing and Being. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York; London, 2014.
Condon, Richard G. "The History and Development of Arctic Photography." Arctic Anthropology, vol. 26, no. 1, 1989, pp. 46-87.
Credland, Arthur G. "George Rexworthy De Wilde (1832/3–1906): A Forgotten Pioneer of Arctic Photography." Polar Record, vol. 51, no. 6, 2015, pp. 672-679.
Duan, Ran, Adam Zwickle, and Bruno Takahashi. "A Construal-Level Perspective of Climate Change Images in US Newspapers." Climatic Change, vol. 142, no. 3-4, 2017, pp. 345.
Miller, P. E., et al. "Assessment of Glacier Volume Change using ASTER-Based Surface Matching of Historical Photography." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 47, no. 7, 2009, pp. 1971-1979.
Stirling, Ian. Polar Bears: The Natural History of a Threatened Species. 2011.
Schneider, Birgit (Writer on climate change), Thomas Nocke, and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Image Politics of Climate Change: Visualizations, Imaginations, Documentations. vol. 55., Transcript, Bielefeld, 2014.
Sheppard, Stephen. Visualizing Climate Change: A Guide to Visual Communication of Climate Change and Developing Local Solutions. Routledge, London, 2012.
Tuft, Diane. The Arctic Melt: Images of a Disappearing Landscape. Assouline Publishing. April 20, 2017.
Varul, M. Z. "Waste, Industry and Romantic Leisure: Veblen's Theory of Recognition." European Journal of Social Theory, vol. 9, no. 1, 2006, pp. 103-117.
Wright, Shelley. Our Ice is Vanishing = Sikuvut Nunguliqtuq: A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Climate Change. vol. 75, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, 2014.
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