Welcome to the Photography Earth Day Image Gallery
The sophomore photography students do a photo project to release on Earth Day every year. As part of this project, students research the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and select one they are interested in using as a theme for their image. The works you see here are inspired by the environmental issues, conversations, and what students learned from their research. Students learned and commented on global issues, and we hope that these artworks elicit curiosity in the viewer regarding these issues and encourage them to think about solutions.
My photo represents a world that is starting to become lost to human influence. My SDG was 13, Climate Action. In a dirty puddle on a path, a snowy mountain can be seen, trees rising tall. It’s a glimpse into what could have once been, a beautiful, bright world, but now is drowned out by human development and a warming world. I want to show what’s at stake for our planet, so that we might not lose it forever.
Since I was born, pollution has become an extreme problem, making our Earth become less healthy day by day. Heavy pollution and climate change are both leading us down a path where serious disasters could take place. For this project, we were asked to dive deep and explore the different SDGs, and how they can relate to our Earth overall. While some don’t tie into nature or the Earth, some definitely stood out to me. After exploring the SDGs, I decided to base my picture off of number 3, good health and well-being. In my picture I wanted to make it clear that our Earth is in a bad state and that we must work together to help it. I thought that band-aids were a great way to symbolize healing the Earth. While obviously they don’t really do anything, they still show the attitude that everyone should have towards healing our home. This Earth day inspired project is a great way to grow awareness for the problems our Earth is facing today.
The SDG I picked was goal 12: sustainable consumption and production. While the access to buying online makes it easier for people to receive essential goods, it simultaneously contributes to the overconsumption of non-essentials. Sustainability is often not taken into consideration by corporations producing and shipping merchandise.
I photographed a plastic-wrapped globe to represent the damaging results of unsustainable consumption and production. The red, confetti-like material in the box celebrates our purchases while ironically representing the indulgence of opening a new package.
I photographed a plastic-wrapped globe to represent the damaging results of unsustainable consumption and production. The red, confetti-like material in the box celebrates our purchases while ironically representing the indulgence of opening a new package.
SDG 15 “Life on Land” which states as its goal, “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems…” stood out to me. This Sustainable Development Goal was the inspiration for my image. It is comprised of three photographs that I put together in a way that highlights the need for protection, restoration, and sustainable use of ecosystems. The two flowers and the butterflies are being constrained by man-made barbed wire in the same way that ecosystems around the world are being diminished and limited by human activity. I hope that my image will inspire thought in regard to this message and potential ways in which SDG 15 can be met.
Most people in developed countries take their access to clean and sanitized water for granted. They go their whole lives drinking all the water they want while people struggle to get any kind of water, no matter how dirty. When thinking about how to help people and the planet I came across the United Nations’ SDGs. There are seventeen SDGs which are all directed towards helping people and the planet. SDG #6 is about clean water and sanitation. Its goal is to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all,” which I think is very important because there cannot be life without water. I made this photo as a tribute to people who do not have access to clean water, and to shine light on the stresses they face everyday. I took a photo of myself holding some water in my hand, you can see that the water is leaving my hand to represent that on top of the water being dirty there are also small amounts of it. Overall I think that gouging forward everyone should not take their water for granted since it will become more scarce for everyone in the following decades. We need to work together as humans to ensure that everyone has access to the one necessity for all life.
My image represents the current state of the energy within the world. I chose SDG 7 on affordable and clean energy. I am bringing awareness to the fact that some parts of the world still use dirty energy sources or do not have access to clean alternatives. In my image, there are two types of energy: the windmills which represent all the clean and green energy, and the non-LED light bulbs right under representing the destruction bad energy can bring. The windmills unknowingly sit above the ruin left by the dirty energy below which represents how the clean energy mission is not finished yet; we must continue to save our planet.
This photo shows the ruins of an old sardine canary factory being reclaimed as a resting spot for a flock of local birds. Canar Row in Monterey Bay began a massive sardine fishing operation in 1902 and was expanded from 1916-1918 to aide WW1 demands. By 1928 more modern boats and nets were able to fish a seemingly endless supply of sardines referred to as the “Siver Tide”. Monterey was so successful as a sardine industry, that it was able to survive the Great Depression and become the “Sardine Capital of the world”. Unfortunately, shortly after many years of accomplishments, the sardine industry died due to a lack of sardines. They had overfished so much that it practically wiped out the entire local sardine population and fishermen were overfishing 3 times their quotas. After the factories were abandoned and partially torn down, decades later a piece of a factory floating above the ocean, local sea birds have made a home for themselves. They are able to be surrounded by the flock and far away from human activity. It’s beautiful to see a structure that changed Monterey Bay’s marine ecosystem forever obtain a new purpose.
A definition from the United Nations, climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, but since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil, and gas) which produces heat-trapping gasses. I wanted to photograph the effect that climate change had on our world’s plants- hence the emphasis on the greenery within the image. The red, burning sky represents the frightening power that climate change holds. It showcases a hot, burning sky that will encompass nature’s greenery and eventually, the world.
I chose the 13th SDG Goal: Climate Change. My focus was highlighting the global warming occurring in places throughout the globe. My image is of a leaking faucet with cracks throughout the picture. About two hours outside of Los Angeles, there is a basin that has dried up. It was there that I captured the image of the cracks which I overlaid with the water faucet image. Climate change is very concerning and I believe we owe it to future generations to make Earth a better place.
For this assignment we were given the challenge of choosing a sustainable developmental goal or an SDG from the 17 that the United Nations came up with. I think a big problem that our earth is facing right now is climate change, and SDG 13 is “Climate action.” I wanted to show the cycle of life with nature, so I took 3 roses in different conditions. One was a healthy rose, one was slowly decaying, and the last was dead. It shows how things are dying faster than they should be due to our current climate status. Although this wasn’t my first idea, I think that advocating for a more sustainable living space is important.
For this project, I chose climate action (SDG 13) as my theme. The sustainable and development goal is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. In my photograph, I tried to demonstrate the Earth melting due to global warming which is an effect of climate change. Climate change is a very important topic in our world, and it was recently estimated that 125 of 154 developing countries are formulating and implementing national climate adaptation plans.
The theme of my earth day photograph was “sustainable cities and communities” which is the 11th SDG. A biophilic design is an approach to architecture that seeks to intertwine nature into everyday living spaces. The biophilic design increases biodiversity while decreasing carbon emissions. Adding trees, vegetable walls, plants, green roofs, etc. to cities can accomplish a new type of sustainability. My image is inspired by the combination of architecture and nature.
The theme of my earth day photograph was sustainable transport, which is SDG 11. My image highlights the conflict between infrastructure and nature through a sharp line of lighting that separates a freeway, undergoing construction, from the leaves of a tree. The goal of sustainable transport is to easily connect people and bolster the economy with minimal detriment to nature. My image attempts to encapsulate the tension between preservation and progress.
My project was on the 13th SDG, Climate Action. Climate change is a major issue as increasing global temperatures will lead to the collapse of some of our nature's ecosystems. As of 2020, we are 1.2℃ above the pre-industrial baseline and we are off track of the 1.5℃ temperature to stay below as called for in the Paris Climate Agreement. My picture depicts the two realities we face, one of an arid and lifeless environment, devoid of water and nature. The other reality, is one of lush green nature full of greenery and flowers.
The Sustainable Development Goal I chose for this project was SDG 13: Climate Action. Climate change continues to be a prevalent issue in today’s society. I represented this by trying to exemplify the drastic changes in melting snow, which I have noticed every year I go skiing. The snow conditions become worse each time I go, so I chose this SDG as my main focus for the topic. The blue fire was meant to blend with the bright colors of the snow so the photos did not look detached when combined. The fire is also in the shape of a mountain to match the mountains in the background of the pictures. The photos also included trees, and deforestation as well as forest fires. Deforestation is a major issue across the world in places such as the Amazon rainforest and forest fires are highly damaging to both communities and the environment, which we experience firsthand here in California.
My photo portrays an issue that the 11th Sustainable Development Goal, Sustainable Cities and Communities, works to solve. Unsustainable urban area construction is a major source of environmental damage, as it depletes the natural resource base, degrades fragile eco-zones and causes chemical pollution. I wanted to capture the severity of the impact of building city infrastructure so that people may begin to consider the importance of promoting sustainable construction industry activities.
For this project, the theme I decided on was water and sanitation. In September of 2015, pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha of the Flint Michigan area found that blood-lead levels in children of that region had nearly doubled since 2014. Through multiple investigations, it was discovered that the blood-lead level elevations, as well as several cases of critical Legionnaire’s disease had begun to rise at a time coinciding with the city’s switch from Detroit water to the Flint River. For more than 4 years, the water supply remained contaminated with lead, and my picture aims to depict the lead-filled water as well as the effect on the Flint citizens.
The photographs I took for this project were based around SDG 15, and more specifically focusing on the impact of water loss and droughts in the California area. I wanted to focus on highlighting the dryness and lack of water in areas that typically instead have an excess. Water is becoming more and more inaccessible, which is the leading point of SDG 15. It is such a critical part of the environment and material life.
For my project I chose to work with the 6th SDG. This goal was to use water for sustainable development, and I showed this by photographing water interacting with plants. Furthermore, I was influenced by photos that used invisible string to capture floating objects within nature. I used this idea in my own unique way, by utilizing the spider web attached to the plants to suspend water seemingly in midair. Moreover, plants need water to survive and provide for a more healthy environment so I did my best to capture that necessity.
For my project I decided to go for more of a recent global issue. My project shows a photo of an older gas station before we had all these issues from the pollution these cars emit. Gas prices also have been increasing recently which makes it non-affordable for some. The strive toward electric cars is something that will continue to see and maybe we will never get to see some of the gas stations I wanted to make my project about. I think seeing these gas stations shows us how the world was before this huge pollution problem we are dealing with.
My theme for the iCan project was climate action, SDG #13. For my photo, I focused on global warming and the melting ice caps. We lose Arctic sea ice at a rate of almost 13% per decade, and over the past 30 years, the oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic has declined by a stunning 95%. To get my photo, I arranged ice on a tray, poured lighter fluid over them, and light the ice on fire to create a dynamic picture.
9th Grade - Portraits of Nature Collage
The ninth graders were learning how to use Photoshop this quarter and combine images. For earth day, the students had to take details of nature and create a collage of Portrait of Nature in Photoshop using only the photos they took. The images below show us the skill they learned in Photoshop and their creativity and love for nature.