The Visual Politics of Environmental Justice

Abstract

This article examines the visual politics at work in website photographs depicting environmental justice issues in the United States. Based on roughly 580 web-published photos collected from environmental justice organizations, the Environmental Protection Agency, the mainstream media, and traditional environmental organizations in the US, this article examines variations in how the subjects of environmental justice are represented and the potential meaning of these representations for viewers. The article identifies three particular photographic genres that serve as landmarks within the environmental justice visual terrain: the fence-line photo, the portrait, and the protest snapshot. Drawing on the literatures of environmental political theory and black visual culture, I position the photos of contemporary environmental justice within the larger discursive, visual, and political contexts that infuse them with meaning. In interpreting these meanings, I argue that a more inclusive socio-ecological politics requires visual strategies that resist racialized ways of seeing while making visible the injustice of disproportionate environmental impacts on low-income communities and people of color.

People of the Mangrove: A Lens into Socioecological Interactions in the Ecuadorian Black Pacific

“…The written descriptions provide relevant information about the personal stories behind the portraits. It is important to bear in mind that portraiture occupies a critical space within the visual landscape of environmental justice; its ability to offer a personalised and affective framework makes it one of the most used genres on photographic websites and exhibitions dealing with environmental injustices (Gabrielson, 2019). However, portrait's long-standing colonial history, the "ambiguities generated by colonial encounters" and the "functions of the portrait within these encounters", should not be ignored (Dell, 2020, p. 192).…”

“…Nevertheless, the children's relationship with the landscape is not limited to work activities; the mangrove is also a natural playground where they swim and catch small animals after work hours, which are determined by the tides. By capturing these other scenes, Jácome joins environmental justice advocates who conceptualise the environment as the place where people live, work, and play (see Gabrielson, 2019). The photographic essay also apprehends the children's close relationship with the fauna of the region: child Efraín Montaño uses two black shells to mimic a second pair of eyes or glasses; Gabriel Benítez holds up a poisonous toadfish, a species that lives in the mud and whose sting can cause infection and deformity in the hands of the cockle gatherers.…”

Immigrants, Scientists, and Butterflies: Depicting Cultural and Biological Diversity in Conservation Photography of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 2007-2019

“…Depicting the border fence as a prison likely references U.S. immigration rhetoric that portrays Mexicans in the borderlands as 'illegal' or 'criminal' (DeChaine 2012). While many photographs evoking environmental injustice employ visual politics that portray their subjects solely as victims, this portrait photograph registers the agency as well as the vulnerability of borderlands inhabitants (Gabrielson 2019).…”

Fishing for Politics?

“…From the clothes activists wear to the posters they put up to mobilize for protest, from colorful performances in the street to activist videos spread through online social networks, there is a broad range of visible expressions of dissent. (Mattoni and Teune, 2014:876) The use of the rhetoric and images in environmental politics have been covered by a large number of studies (Delicath and DeLuca, 2003;Hajer and Versteeg, 2005;Phadke, 2010;Olowoporoku et al, 2012;Schneider and Nocke, 2014;Gabrielson, 2019).…”