Nina Maria, Vatnajökull’s heart, 2023, from the series when white blankets will be gone, 2021 - ongoing 'when white blankets will be gone' is a multimedia exploration of vanishing glaciers across my home in Austria and the largest glaciers of Europe. Growing up in the Austrian Alps, witnessing the landscapes changing around me, this is a dedicated project to glaciers, rooted in a deeply personal connection to the natural world. Through my grandfather’s photographic and Super 8mm record of glaciers from the early 70’s, particularly in connection with his Alpine Community, this project seeks to bridge the past and the present through a visual, written and auditory journey. I retrace my grandfather’s memories; our eyes meeting across time as we witness the Earth together.

Nadia Nervo, as if I had always danced with the trees, from the series Dancing with Trees, 2022 Dancing with Trees connects the soul via energy of the forest, nature and trees. In wake of the global climate crisis, a necessity for a rediscovery of nature is essential - extending love for the natural world, especially for those in metropolitan cities, is vital for our planet’s sustenance. Numerous studies show that both being in forests and simply sitting and looking at trees reduces both blood pressure and stress. Long before the advent of modern science, shamans sought spiritual awakenings and used trees for holistic purposes. Dances with trees were believed to increase vitality and spiritual awareness.

Luke Spencer, Untitled, Larkfield Way, 2022 Connecting, back with my childhood relationship with nature in my Grandfather's Garden in Brighton through the medium of photography, taught me a lot about community, care and reciprocity between people and place. What struck me in conversations with my Grandfather is how the common act of gardening can break down so many of our perceived barriers of how we tend to each other and our local communities. Through exploring this mutual connection to place, our conversations became an exchange of knowledge, experiences and vulnerability helping us to grow our relationship not only with the land but with each other

Bill Brooks, Twelfth Hole, 2024 One of the consequences of climate change is that extremes of weather behaviour are becoming increasingly common. This photograph shows one example: flooding in Bognor Regis, where a local golf club was underwater for many months. Many homes and business were also flooded in the surrounding area, leading to much personal hardship as well as loss of amenity and road closures. Following this event, a planning application for the construction of 500 new homes was rejected, exacerbating a shortage of local affordable housing. Climate change isn’t just about melting ice - it is already changing our lives here in Sussex.

Kelly Hill, The River Nar, from the series Creta, 2023 Photography can reveal what often goes unnoticed and bring compelling stories into public consciousness. The story I am bringing to the Open Eco theme is of Norfolk's unique and beautiful chalk-streams. My photograph, from the series, Creta, is taken in Kings Lynn very close to where the River Nar reaches the River Ouse. The project, that includes a portfolio of images and film, investigates the deep time over which chalk streams have evolved and compares it with the short-term thinking and actions that are destroying these fragile ecosystems as I journey down river with a local activist. At the end of the journey from pristine source to sea, the water is seen to flow over the detritus of human neglect

Bethany Hobbs, How Now Dairy, from the series Resurgence: Sustainable Farming Today, 2024 This series highlights the strength and perseverance of the farmers using sustainable farming techniques and urges the sharing of knowledge and aspirations with others. So began the search for the farmers taking responsibility for our land and sea. The cows back to their calves, the fishermen collecting prawns individually, and the kelp farmers giving back to our oceans. The beauty and creativity found in these corners of our small island are ones of hope that will lead the way to a better future for our ecosystems, us, and our planet. The image shown is of dairy farmer Oliver from How Now Dairy with his compost heap made from milk packaging. This is then used to fertilise the land resulting in a full circle process.

Alex Currie, Sheep, Isle of Lewis, Western Isles, Scotland, 2023 I am a photographer based in the Outer Hebrides. My work is concerned with the societal impact of the built environment and the impact that humans have on our environmental surroundings. Whether that is the public infrastructure, how the land is managed and farmed, or our seas overfished and polluted. I work mainly with a large format view camera, interspersed with some digital images, and have been working long term on a project about the Western Isles in Scotland. Rather than answering any questions, I hope to be able to invite the viewer to question their surroundings, and how we, as humans, impact that environment.

Olana Light, Searching for a Place to Belong SHI, 2023 Photography can play a powerful role in addressing the climate crisis by serving as a visual bridge between humanity and nature, as seen in Light’s work. Her practice explores the deep connection between identity and the natural world, emphasizing our integral place within it. Through photography, we can capture and communicate the profound unity between humans and nature, highlighting the importance of preserving this relationship. By portraying the seamless merging of humans with the natural environment, photography can help people see themselves as part of a collective 'we-world' that transcends societal divisions and fosters a sense of belonging. This perspective encourages a shift in how we perceive our role on the planet, inspiring a greater commitment to environmental stewardship.

Wes Bell, Snag - 11th Avenue N.E., Medicine Hat, AB, Canada, 2015 Though the series Snag was originally created as a tribute to my mother's passing, capturing both remembrance and melancholy, the subject matter within the images is flapping remnants of plastic caught in barbed-wire fences. Whipped violently by the wind, they were left shredded and lacerated but trapped nonetheless in the no man's land of boundary fences, neither here nor there, an emotional purgatory. Plastic will never decompose; instead, it breaks down into tiny microscopic pieces in perpetuity. Photography allows our emotions to become accessible and visible, enabling us to feel the sadness and urgency of the climate crisis and respond accordingly.

Joanne Gibson, For Your Safety?, 2024 This photograph, part of a series exploring human connection to nature through walking, uses foraged ivy to develop the image, offering an eco-friendly alternative to traditional chemicals and integrating the local landscape into the process. It addresses the issue of land access in England, where we’re excluded from 92% of land. We’re led to believe that vast areas used for farming and conservation can only thrive without human presence. However, excluding people from nature only deepens our separation from it. To ensure environmental survival, we must be included in our countryside, recognising our role as integral to the ecosystem.

Raegan Hodge, Precipice 3, 2024 After just having lived through a global pandemic, we still face down another unknown global horrorscape: climate change. Many of us (especially our children) are filled with dread and anxiety, but we don't necessarily talk about it; it is this deep fear looming in our psyche. The image Precipice 3 contemplates many themes: man's impact on nature, self-harm, liminal existence, impending danger and gothic horror. My work aims to unapologetically expose our fear and fragility, confronting the anxious consciousness inside us.

Francisco Gonzalez Camacho, Do(I)ce, from the series Reverting, 2024 Gentrification, waste and environmental degradation are some of the problems related to tourism, challenging the idealized image of the Icelandic landscape. During my stay, I photographed highly visited natural locations, which I reinterpreted in combination with the creation of my own handmade recycled paper from waste. This exploration mirrors the transformative process of manifesting something from the void —a form of alchemy of waste— with the delicate equilibrium of our environment, and the perpetual cycle it follows.

André Lichtenberg, newforest 1, 2024 My large scale photographic studies of forests combine the use of selective multiple exposures of woodlands to create ambiguous and intriguing works that explore our relationship to the natural environment. Designed to evoke strong emotions through beauty and subjectivity, my images invite the viewer to locate themselves within a dramatic environment. My hope is that this deep and personal engagement provokes contemplation and as a consequence, raises awareness of the significance of forestry and green spaces in maintaining life on earth and our responsibility to honour this.

Melanie King, Mam Tor, Cyanotype, Dandelion Leaves Toner, 2023 Acquaintance explores the creative possibilities of botanical cyanotype toning and sustainable photographic processes. This exploration considers how location-specific sustainable photographic processes can produce bodies of work that are materially connected to the landscape. This project is centred on the Peak District and surrounding areas, close to where I grew up. I was not able to regularly access this landscape as a working class young person living in Manchester. This enquiry allows me to become reacquainted with the landscape, through the lens of photography and through the material engagement with plants identified in the environments I visit.

Rachel Foster, Rainforest Salmon River, 2023 AboutExhibitionsEventsVisitNewsShop Search
OPEN ECO: Rachel Foster. Rainforest Salmon River, 2023
This lumen print was created by rubbing directly onto a small sand bank in a glacier-fed river close to where I live. Glaciers are disappearing rapidly all around the globe, intensifying risks of landslides and imbalances in freshwater fish habitat. The deep crimson is a result of the unusually warm and dry October afternoon during the salmon spawning season. Pacific salmon cannot tolerate warming rivers and are vulnerable to heat stress and mortality when water temperatures exceed 20 degrees Celsius. Photographs such as these provide a critical micro-window into the movements and components of our surroundings.

Kevin McGarry, Cuveille Island, Antarctica Peninsula, 2024 Can art save the world? I am not sure, however I believe it has the power to change the world. My own view’s and then behaviour towards today’s climate situation was greatly altered after two recent photographic trips. I went to the Kingdom of Bhutan in May 2023 and then to Antarctica in March 2024. On my return I realised that less than 1% of the worlds population get to travel to these amazing locations. I was commissioned as an sports photographer to capture a group of international runners that ran a marathon in each of these locations.

Rosie Barnes, Lights Left On IV, from the series Lights Left On, 2018 As a child it was always impressed upon me that I should never leave a light on in a room that wasn’t occupied, a rule that I have stuck to. More recently I have become drawn to the sight of lights left on within our landscapes. At night and in darkness, they are something of practical use, yet by day, they jar and create a visual disruption. Being lit by the natural light that surrounds them, they become an object, not a tool. And whilst they bestow an unsettling beauty upon these landscapes, the Lights Left On offer up a quiet, yet uneasy comment on our casual wastage of resources.

Mark A Phillips, Repair is Essential. Repair for Everyone. Kara repairing a tablet, from the series unbroken.solutions, 2019 – ongoing We used to value our ‘things’. But a combination of consumerism and mass production has led to ‘things’ of shorter life, that are much harder to repair. To compound matters, our ability to repair these things has also faltered. Confronting these challenges, my ‘unbroken.solutions’ project takes a solutions approach; to shed a light on the sharers, repairers and activists. The overall aim is to point to ways we can all make better use of what we have, to adopt or adapt, and to build a more sustainable future.

John Walmsley, Port Talbot steelworks and local housing, 1971 The Port Talbot steelworks and close-by houses in 1971, belching out obnoxious gases which contributed to the climate change we're now living with. This is the site where the owners, Tata Steel, are closing the blast furnaces to replace them with greener electric ones.