Thesis title: Fotografia aerea negli anni 2000-2010. La rappresentazione della crisi ecologica
This research explores the representation of the ecological crisis through the perspectives offered by aerial art photography produced in the first decade of the 2000s. When referring to the ecological crisis, we intend to denote the Western and postmodern disturbance arising from the evident inadequacy of traditional categories governing the relationship between humanity and nature. Therefore, the term ecology should be understood in its fundamental sense, as the realm encompassing interactions between organisms and their environment, specifically between humans and non-human entities. The 2000s mark a pivotal turning point in this context, notably in the development of public awareness regarding climate change.
Before delving into the identified tropes individually, the initial two chapters were crafted to furnish historical and theoretical tools to enhance comprehension of the subsequent core research section. The following chapter, in particular, delineates the fundamental aspects of the history of aerial photography, tracing its origins until the conclusion of the 20th century. The evolution of this technology is examined alongside the various debates accompanying it over time. Examining regime aerial photography, its aesthetic and nationalist dimensions, as discussed by scholars such as Gabriele D'Autilia, Paula Amad, and the earlier insights of Walter Benjamin, reveals associations between aerial and satellite vision and the emergence of the environmental movement in the 1970s. Moving through the two World Wars, we explore the development of new space recording, remote sensing, which achieved comprehensive global coverage only in 1972. The launch of Sputnik in 1957 marked the beginning of satellite imagery portraying Earth beyond its atmosphere. This newfound ability to observe the world in unprecedented ways catalyzed a heightened ecological sensitivity, exemplified by iconic images like the Blue Marble, and later explored in depth by Cultural Geography scholars such as Denis Cosgrove and within the field of visual culture. Numerous aerial photographers in the 20th century utilized available technologies to document the indiscriminate human impact on Earth's surface. Section G briefly traces the history of such imagery until the close of the century, highlighting their significant role in understanding the contemporary ontological crisis and climatic emergency.
The subsequent section delves into the ecological crisis and the debates surrounding the concepts of nature, landscape, and representation. The most influential theorizations of the human-nature relationship were advanced in the late 20th century by scholars within the humanist-Marxist tradition, including Antonio Gramsci and Edward Palmer Thompson. Contributions from Denis Cosgrove, Raymond Williams, John Berger, Gillian Rose, and William John Thomas Mitchell are considered, along with the subsequent applications of this methodology by Rebecca Solnit, Rod Giblett, Deborah Bright, and others. This part of the research revisits moments in the history of landscape photography, subject to recent reinterpretation in light of discourses on nature, nation, and corporation. The second chapter aims to provide historical-critical antecedents essential for understanding the case studies in chapter three while establishing a clear and open methodological framework. This section's second and final contribution focuses on the image and its role in the ecological crisis, particularly in aerial photography. The dual mandate of detection and engagement is examined in its paradoxical aspect, encompassing both highly technical detection and expressive possibilities that can lead to opposite and abstract production. The contradictory nature of aerial photography's massive presence in representing landscape and environment is highlighted.
The third and final chapter commences with a brief analysis of events in the decade 2000-2010 that heightened ecological and climate awareness. It traces the maturation of an established iconography originating in the 1990s, resulting in distinct aerial visual recurrences such as glaciers, water bodies, mines, quarries, and the oil landscape. These subjects form a central component of the complex interplay between visualities, apparatuses, institutions, discourses, and bodies. The selected photographers, active between 2000 and 2010, consciously employed aerial photography in response to the ecological crisis, highlighting the scale of suffering and its impact. The emergence of new subjects or hyperobjects, endowed with their own agency and beyond the conventional naturcultural horizon, is explored. Post-humanities studies contribute significantly to understanding the marginality of humans in the face of environmental and social collapse resulting from capitalist geopolitics and controlling biotechnologies. The aerial photographers discussed in the last chapter perceive the monumental scope of these events, choosing flight and vertical vision instinctively.
Each subject is introduced with a brief summary of the state of the art in the 2000-2010 decade, emphasizing the sociopolitical aspect and the aesthetic choices made by different authors within their historical context. The multidirectionality of approaches advocated and the diverse meanings and purposes attributed to aerial photography over time are evident in each case under analysis. Many selected photographers exemplify a conscious approach, emphasizing values in their images that lead to forms of activism, manifested through public interventions, sites, or blogs. The material considered extends beyond photographic catalogs, incorporating content published on their reference websites.