Some Thoughts on the Role of Photography in the Anthropocene

"What does it mean to be a photographer today and is it still relevant to make a picture when an infinite number already exist?"
-- Ignacio Guevara

I would say that we live in unprecedented times – with the biology of the planet, including humans, under existential threat. The old stories we have told ourselves, based on the myths of eternal "progress" and the idea that humans are somehow "separate" from the planet on which they exist, have proven to be destructive fictions. Accordingly, photography that seeks to tell new (or old and resurrected) founding cultural stories is photography that is highly relevant, crucial, essential.

My other thought is that -- whether or not we realize it, -- we exist in a battlefield of images warring for influence upon our consciousness. On one side, there are the ubiquitous images generated by the corporate advertising machine. These images seek to transform humans into consumers with empty materialist values and yearnings that can only be satiated – temporarily and incompletely – through the purchase of products. On the other side, there are people creating images and capturing images which seek to challenge and deepen human consciousness. These are images which seek to draw the human moth away from the flame of empty consumption. And so, again, photography is deeply relevant today.