Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape

Landscape photographs contain a multitude of stories about natural spaces and the people connected to them. In the first episode of Widening the Lens, archaeologist Rachael Z. DeLue and historian Tyler Green critically examine dominant narratives about land, identity, and history generated by early landscape photography, and artist Sky Hopinka considers creating alternative archives that combine the personal with the poetic. —Image: Sky Hopinka, Cowboy Mouth 2 (Yoiréreginagere), 2022; © Sky Hopinka. Courtesy of the artist

The third episode of Widening the Lens looks at how artists are thinking about the history of public land and the ways in which discriminatory policies have long defined who has access to natural spaces. Ornithologist and writer J. Drew Lanham explores this tension through his family history, while artist Xaviera Simmons, curator Candice Hopkins, and filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat convene to reconsider landscapes as sites that can forge solidarity amidst environmental and political concerns. —Image: Xaviera Simmons, Sundown (Number Two), 2018, Courtesy of the artist and David Castillo, Miami © Xaviera Simmons

Photography can be a tool to visualize bodily attachments to land. In Episode 5, artist David O. Alekhuogie and geologist Kathryn Yusoff engage in a powerful dialogue about how various conditions that define the contemporary landscape are reflected in the human body, shaping how we physically move through and experience our environment. Saretta Morgan expands on this idea through a newly commissioned poem that considers even deeper connections between body and place in which geology, history, and photography interact. —Image: David O. Alekhuogie, Firestation 30, Mom's garden (35.585620, -34.126420, -117.537730), 2021, © David Alekhuogie. Courtesy of Yancey Richardson, New York

Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape is a podcast that spotlights different facets of the relationship between photography and the environment. Hosted by tennis champion, entrepreneur, and arts advocate Venus Williams, Widening the Lens features artists, writers, poets, philosophers, and environmentalists in dialogue alongside archival audio, historical anecdotes, sonic experiences, and curatorial interviews. Visit us at carnegieart.org/podcast to listen and to experience exclusive Widening the Lens content, or tune in where ever you listen to your podcasts.