ICM Photography and COP26

Climate Change is unfortunately a concrete and dramatic reality. Yet a large part of the world population, however, does not admit it or simply ignores it because they are only now entering an economic cycle that will allow them to improve their state of extreme poverty.

It is therefore above all the responsibility of the “developed world”, that is of those who until now have contributed exponentially to the definition of the current situation, to act and create awareness on the problem. In this article I would like to present a concrete initiative made by the ICM Photography Group that is going to publish in November a special environmental issue of the ICM PhotoMag in conjunction with United Nations Climate Change Conference.

COP26

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), organized by the United Kingdom in collaboration with Italy, will take place from October 31 to November 12, 2021 at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow (United Kingdom).

The ultimate objective of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change is to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. To that end, countries are working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change and accelerate sustainable development. At the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, COP 21, governments agreed that mobilizing stronger and more ambitious climate action is urgently required to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. It is evident to everyone (to almost everyone because unfortunately there are ignorant deniers in all fields) that the world is already experiencing changes in average temperature, shifts in the seasons and an increasing frequency of extreme weather events and other climate change impacts and slow onset events. The faster the climate changes, and the longer adaptation efforts are put off, the more difficult and expensive it could be our action and the most dramatic thing is that the lives of many people could be in doubt. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all-solution’, but everyone has a role to play in effectively implementing the change.

United Nations is working in establishing climate-friendly patterns of sustainable; these models depend on a broad range of approaches such as:

• Identifying, planning and implementing adaptation and mitigation actions
• Facilitating technology development, dissemination and deployment
• Enabling access to climate finance
• Developing relevant aspects of education, training and public awareness, and
• Communication of information

Sustainable lifestyles, sustainable patterns of consumption and production, are fundamental to reducing greenhouse emissions and enhancing resilience to the inevitable effects of climate change. Success will require broad collaboration between all levels of government and all sectors of society. However, apart from the concrete actions on these different fronts, it is essential to continue, encourage, persist in the immense work of conscientiousness of the population and this work should be part of our way of life and how we relate to others, each to his way and using all the skills and abilities in his possession.

ICM PhotoMAG special issue

In this sense, the ICM Photography Group has decided to take a step forward and propose ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) photography as a way of reimagining the World. 

ICM photography is a type of photography that is done with instinct, you paint with light and shapes to visually represent what you feel at that moment; a melody is composed which must play to universal music because people does not communicate with the representation of forms, but through sensations. A poem instead of a literary essay. It is an exercise of freedom that allows us to free ourselves from appearances and concentrate on the essence; a photograph that open the way back and forth between the obvious and the suggestive.

ICM Photography Group is in charge to publish the ICM Photography digital Magazine quarterly; this year, in conjunction with COP26 has decided to publish a special environmental issue of the magazine in November, to be at the forefront of awareness of souls on the need to intervene to change the current course with respect to climate problem. ICMPhotoMag is committed to bring awareness to the environmental issues we all face as a global community and to being proactive in finding ways to effect change. The intention for this Special Environmental Issue is to show proactive evidence that change is possible.

In this special November issue, there will be more than a dozen featured articles showing the ways ICM photographers are being proactive in effecting change and using their ICM creativity to bring awareness to environmental concerns.

The silent struggle of the trees

I had the honor and the satisfaction that my proposal: “The silent struggle of the trees in suggesting overlaps” (from which I extracted the two images that I have included in this article) has been selected by magazine editor among the featured articles for the special ICM PhotoMag issue.

My proposal speaks about trees and how these silent and majestic living beings can underlie a real paradigm shift.

Trees are the symbol of the challenge against the power of the elements that want to destroy them. They are the vital force of the life that wants to show the courage of the future. They are the positive solitude of the majesty and wisdom that is full of peace and serenity.

All the trees on the planet are about 3 trillion; about 1.3 trillion are in tropical and sub-tropical regions, 610 billion in temperate regions and 740 billion in boreal regions. Humans cut about 15 billion trees and plants only 5 billion. About 18 million hectares of forest cover are lost in just one year. When in a landscape disappears any hint of poetry, the soul impoverished, imagination is turned off, the routine takes possession of souls and condemned them to disappear.

What to do to reverse this dramatic funeral verdict? Planting trees means thinking about the future, because whoever plants a tree, plants hope. This is not just an effective slogan, but the evidence that a change is possible. But it is still not enough. We should change the paradigm and stop thinking that green is more at the service of the city; the new city must be designed to serve the green. This implies that we must consider plants and green spaces as a common good, which give value from a social, economic and environmental point of view and provide a multitude of benefits for urban populations and beyond. Urban green areas can help reconnect society to nature and offer a public space for education, playing a substantial role in raising citizens’ pro-environmental awareness. 

The intention of the visual proposal I expressly made for the ICM PhotoMag special issue is on one hand to be the testimony of the risk of loss we would have if the harassment of Nature would be fulfilled in its brutal entirety. On the other hand, I would like to show the failure of ourselves and to make a tribute to the brutal and silent fight the trees are doing to help us to find us back.

Anyone wishing to contribute to spreading this message of hope can refer to their social networks and communities at the following address. Thank you for being part of this awareness project.