Conservation Photography Pedagogues Bruce Farnsworth

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Conservation photography as
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Bruce Evan Farnsworth
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Educational Foundations & Research, College of Education &
Human Development, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks,
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Environmental Education ResearchAquatic Insects
2011, 1–19, iFirst Article
Conservation photography as environmental education: focus on

the pedagogues
Bruce Evan Farnsworth*
Downloaded by [University of North Dakota], [Bruce Farnsworth] at 12:20 01 November 2011
Educational Foundations & Research, College of Education & Human Development,

University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, USA
(Received 28 April 2011; final version received 3 August 2011)
This research examines the genre of conservation photography as a legitimate

and highly relevant pedagogical enterprise well poised amid the proliferation of
digital media and environmental crises. This small-scale qualitative study closely
follows the work of four professional photojournalists. This research asserts that
the professional conservation photographers are highly qualified educators and
among the most progressive of our environmental pedagogues. The study orients
to the educational potential of photographs, recommends visual literacy training
for teachers and suggests strategies for the discursive use of photographs in envi-
ronmental education. Conservation photographers offer models for increased
eco-visual-scientific literacy, superb resources for student engagement and new
paths for community-based ecological education and research. The paper con-
cludes with a working definition of the conservation photographer as educator.
Keywords: environment; conservation photography; eco-literacy; visual literacy;
place; biodiversity; photography; immersive; pedagogy; arts-based; photographic
education
Introduction
We want our youth to get a good environmental education, yet the vehicle for many
is not apparent. Enthusiastic teachers seek new resources.
In their essay ‘The Failure of Environmental Education (and How We Can Fix
It)’, Blumstein and Saylan (2007) proposed several improvements for environmental
education: the need to better quantify impacts, teach the complex non-linear rela-
tionships of ecology, impart a worldview and integrate action and critical thinking
approaches. In 2005, the US Environmental Protection Agency National Environ-
mental Education Advisory Council recommended it was time to ‘broaden the
audience . . . by actively engaging all sectors of society’, and to ‘improve the
quality, accessibility, and dissemination of EE materials and programs’ (29).
To fix this, we should look to professional conservation photographers and the
multiple resources they provide. Ward (2008, 8) provides an excellent historical
overview of conservation photography and positions it as an issues-focused form of
documentary photography that ‘empowers conservation’. Mittermeier (2005)
described the field, which is closely aligned with place-based education (Greenwood
2003a, 2003b; Greenwood and Smith 2008a) and Sobel’s (1996) pedagogy of place,
*Email: bruce.farnsworth@und.edu
ISSN 1350-4622 print/ISSN 1469-5871 online

Ó 2011 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2011.618627
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2 B.E. Farnsworth
as ‘the result of photographic talent combined with environmental understanding

and conservation commitment’. What untapped approaches do they bring to envi-
ronmental education that classroom educators can emulate, and what resources have
they made available to improve visual-ecological awareness?
This research articulates the pedagogical work of the conservation photographer
(and their images) and situates these individuals as highly qualified educators working
outside the academy. An argument is made that the discipline of education is best sui-
ted to validate their work. Editorial conservation photographers who publish their
work, in this view, comprise an under-appreciated group of environmental pedagogues.
Working as an embedded researcher-photographer, I observed four full-time photo-

journalists as they planned their assignments, created photographs and edited their
work, examining the process from pre-visualization to realization. Two participants,
Thomas and Jake, work exclusively in conservation while the other two photojournal-
ists, Ethan and Charles, address natural and cultural history among many assignments.
This study problematized the work of conservation photographers as environ-
mental educators by pursuing two research questions:
In what ways do the conservation photographers compare with, or exceed, environ-

mental education practice today (are conservation photographers highly qualified envi-
ronmental educators)?
How might the formal environmental education community collaborate with conserva-
tion photographers to capitalize on their work and improve the visual and ecological
literacy of students?
Aesthetics plus pedagogy

In one view, nature photographers have traditionally pursued singular images of
beauty. The origins of more purposeful nature photography (in the US) came about
with the conservation-oriented work of Carleton Watkins, William Henry Jackson,
Ansel Adams, Philip Hyde, Robert Glenn Ketchum and others. Their classic images
proclaimed the heritage value of wilderness and became outreach tools in establish-
ing federal parklands.
In Art as Experience, the American pedagogue Dewey (1934) foreshadowed the
unrealized educational value of photography. He suggested that the worship of art
limits their utility, ‘. . . when an art product once attains classic status, it somehow
becomes isolated from the human conditions under which it was brought into being
and from the human consequences it engenders in actual life-experiences’ (1). Con-
servation photographs are more than pretty pictures.
Resisting the aesthetic confines of pure art, the images reflect the photographers’
fusion of art, science and the practical matters of saving species. These are highly
considered images in which the photographers balance the objectivity of photojour-
nalism with the concerns of all species. This research indicates that the conservation
photographers plan and carry out their work with clear educational objectives,
weaving multiple strands of interpretation into visual narratives.
Conservation photography: new vision for environmental education

Today there is a renewed movement toward eco-literacy in the work of conservation
photography. Their photo essays address both the aesthetics and the issues that
Environmental Education Research 3
characterize places and people facing ecological crises – initiatives that can be
adapted to community-based projects by students. The International League of Con-
servation Photographers (ILCP) based in the US is a consortium of photographers
and photojournalists, and their leading professional organization. Their mission
statement (ILCP 2011) is:
To further environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography. We

believe that awe-inspiring photography is a powerful force for the environment, espe-
cially when paired with the collaboration of committed scientists, politicians, religious
leaders and policy makers. We plan to replace environmental indifference with a new
culture of stewardship and passion for our beautiful planet.
The ILCP organizes science-styled Rapid Assessment Visual Expeditions

(RAVEs) that resemble multi-taxon teams of scientists sent to survey areas of high
biological diversity. Working at the invitation of local community hosts, a RAVE
team is formed of member-specialists (e.g. wildlife, culture, landscape, close-up,
remote camera, etc.) to photograph areas that have either inadequate photographic
documentation or pressing conservation needs. The images are quickly edited and
disseminated locally first, then in larger geographic circles across multiple media.
Two of the study participants, Thomas and Jake, are ILCP members.
The Wild Media Foundation in the UK and Wild Wonders in Europe are also
leading conservation photography. The Wild Media mission is to further environ-
mental and cultural conservation through ethical photography. The recent book
Media, Ecology and Conservation (Blewitt 2010) addresses the use of visual media
in drawing attention to wildlife issues.
Ecologist David Orr (1992) makes clear the urgency of an eco-literate youth in
his essay ‘Environmental Literacy: Education as if the Earth Mattered’:
The generation now being educated will have to do what we, the present generation,
have been unable or unwilling to do . . . protect biological diversity . . . begin the great
work of repairing, as much as possible, the damage done to the earth in the past two
hundred years of industrialization . . . for the most part, however, we are still educating
the young as if there were no planetary emergency (1).
Reforms brought by conservation photography answer Orr’s call for reality-

based environmental education. Foale and MacIntyre (2005) urged nature photogra-
phers to move beyond ‘charismatic mega fauna’ (6) and the ‘fantasy of the
non-present photographer in the portrayal of pristine nature’ (14) to address the
complexity and totality of ecosystems. Conservation photographers diverge from
the idealized anthropocentric perspective found in such popular environmental edu-
cation curricula as Project WILD (Horwood 1987), a curriculum series whose major
funding and editorial decisions are influenced by the North American forestry
industry.
Methods
In-depth, semi-structured interviews and observations are the primary sources for
this emergent qualitative design (Maxwell 2006). I observed the photojournalists as
they scouted locations, made photographs and edited their work. I reviewed the
websites, autobiographical statements and prior online interviews of the participants
4 B.E. Farnsworth
before joining them in the field. Observations, lasting up to five hours for each pho-
tographer, took place in the context of real nature-related assignments.
With an axiological disposition informed by my own experience as an editorial
photographer, I had professional ‘hunches’ that were formalized into research ques-
tions. Nonetheless, this work meets Maxwell’s (1992, 285) descriptive validity with
no ‘making up or distorting . . .’. I also used the accepted validity methods of quali-
tative audit trails, journaling and member checking (Lincoln and Guba 1985).
Interviews were conducted after field photography to facilitate reflection. Ques-
tions included ‘Can you describe the interactions you have with other professionals
during a nature-related assignment?’ and ‘How do you create a conservation

message within the two-dimensional medium of a photograph?’
Participants
Jake has been a biologist and self-described conservation photographer for 10 years.
He credits adolescent hunting experience for his skills in approaching and ‘shoot-
ing’ wildlife with the camera. He has completed projects for the National
Geographic Society.
Thomas has been an active contract photographer for National Geographic and
other major magazines for over 20 years. He has university training in photojournal-
ism, but he is not trained formally in the natural sciences.
Ethan describes himself as a photojournalist. He works for a major regional
newspaper in the Midwest US. He has been part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning photog-
raphy team, though he is educated in the humanities and self-trained as a photogra-
pher.
Charles is a full-time photojournalist and commercial photographer based in the
Rocky Mountains of the central US. He has a degree in photographic technology.
In his rural landscape photography, he is drawn to scenes that ‘include both man
and nature’. He is also a former Pulitzer Prize team member.
The rationale for choosing these four participants was two-fold. Are conserva-
tion photographers Thomas and Jake, by contrast with Ethan and Charles, anything
more than specialty photojournalists? Does their practice truly constitute a form of
professional environmental education? The sampling of these professional photo-
journalists, each addressing environmental themes to different degrees, helped to
isolate any educational practice among them.
Data analysis
Coding of the transcribed interviews was done with Hyper Research Qualitative
Analysis Tool software (Version 2.8.3), focusing on the photographic process,
decision-making and other behaviours. I looked for any beliefs, attitudes or expe-
riences that may influence their work. The only elements that were analysed
were those that related to conservation photography or the direct experience of a
participant.
For this work, I combined the interviews and observations of each participant
into a single case. I then created a histogram of the codes identified in the unified
data-set of each participant. During axial coding, the codes were assembled into cat-
egories and themes. Four themes emerged which are described in the findings.
Findings
Conservation photographers as environmental educators
This research reports on the working approaches of four professional photojournal-
ists, how they display environmental knowledge, and the pedagogical techniques
they employ. The findings validate the educational work of the conservation photog-
raphers and show they excel in four areas of environmental pedagogy.
Theme one: understanding of ecologies

Conservation photographers Thomas and Jake are more diligent than photojour-
nalists Ethan and Charles when entering natural areas. Thomas and Jake research
the behavioural needs of their subjects before fieldwork. Thomas, on assignment
to photograph large migratory mammals, chose the more strenuous platform of a
bush plane to photograph buffalo from the air. Although he had access to a
small all-terrain vehicle (ATV), he recognized that the mothers with calves were
wary of the ATV. Perhaps it resembled a large ground predator to the animals.
Since the bush plane was used daily to check fences on the sprawling ranch,
the buffalo had habituated to it, and they were not alarmed by its approach.
For photojournalists Ethan and Charles, behavioural considerations figure less
prominently in their wildlife work. Ethan was assigned to photograph male Greater
prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus), a non-endangered species, in
mating displays at a national wildlife refuge. I followed behind as he made his
pre-dawn approach to the photography hide. The birds never appeared for him. He
later commented that ‘[the birds] didn’t get over to the [display] grounds’. As a zool-
ogist familiar with the birds, I had heard the large ground birds flush during our walk
to the blind. In walking directly to the blind, Ethan had traversed the very display
ground where the birds would have gathered. Ethan had obtained permission to use
the hide, but he had not researched the bird’s habitat use or behaviour. Later that
morning, Ethan photographed a Sandhill crane (Grus canadensis). When asked if he
considered the bird’s natural history as he photographed, he replied that he was ‘just
looking for an interesting composition’. Ethan is an experienced photojournalist, but
his approach did not demonstrate an ecological understanding of his subjects.
The full-time conservation photographers, Thomas and Jake, address their natu-
ral history stories in ecological terms. During the study, the two men made regular
reference to endemic species and ecotypes at their assignment locations. As photo-
journalists go, Ethan is a generalist. He could name only one of the six ecological
communities at the prairie chicken refuge.
The work of conservation photographers Thomas and Jake reflects an environ-
mental educator’s attention to the scale of ecosystems. Jake referred to recent work
in the high mountains of Canada, an ‘area so remote where [oil and gas leases]
don’t just affect the wildlife . . . in the headwaters, it affects the whole area’.
All of the participants would agree that beautiful nature scenes are still needed
to inspire and motivate, but Jake and Thomas record the impacts and threats as
well. Thomas explained the balance of this reporting,
Nature photographs, often times, they are beautiful recordings of things as we’d like
to see them, very idealistic . . . conservation photographs a lot of times are not pretty.
They are very ugly and they show wrecked ecosystems or species being sold in a mar-
ket where they shouldn’t be consumed.
6 B.E. Farnsworth
I asked Ethan what topic he would choose if he was asked to create a conserva-
tion feature for his newspaper. He referred to high water levels at a nearby lake, com-
menting ‘there’s a surplus of birds...so many birds that come through here. . .’. Ethan
mistakenly mistakenly generalized the seasonal abundance of game waterfowl as a
measure of the quality or extent of migratory bird habitat in the region.
While not antithetic to conservation, photographer Charles’s fine art landscapes
reference ecosystems in the abstract. His rural scenes show man ‘fighting back nat-
ure to retain control’ and he adds, ‘nature always wins’. Charles’s self-reported
‘formalist look to the landscape where all the [shelterbelt] rows are perfect and
there’s no weed in between’ is not unlike the early ‘majestic’ approaches to nature
photography described in the introduction.
Thomas and Jake also address the complex socio-political ecologies of the natu-
ral environment. One example is the relationship between biological diversity and
social and economic inequality. The catastrophic 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill is
a case in point. Thomas shared a scene with me from his own coverage (Figure 1),
The locals were extremely frustrated and angry about having their way of life
disrupted and possibly eliminated if the contamination didn’t go away . . . I was
nervous about trespassing while shooting . . . they had a rope or a fence around the
property, but I went in anyway. I was pretty sure that whoever made the cemetery
wanted it to be seen by the press, so that emboldened me.
Thomas’s experience demonstrates a useful dilemma-based case study in the real

work of these photographing environmental educators.
Figure 1. Mock cemetery created by a homeowner near Grand Isle, Louisiana, in the wake
of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Ó 2010 Reproduced with
the permission of the photographer.
Theme two: interpretive-conceptual orientation

All of the participant photojournalists were quickly underway with the early work
of pre-visualizing desired images in what Van Aalsvoort (2004, 1637) describes as
the ‘minds eye’. During the interviews, it seemed these early thoughts served to
motivate the photographers on to fieldwork and give them a kind of search pattern
to expedite finding scenes.
Once in the field, conservation photographers Thomas and Jake are highly
metacognitive. While making photographs, Jake asks himself whether he is just
‘capturing the grandness . . . or am I showing the habitat . . . what the animal
really needs’ Thomas explained, ‘I really try to keep the audience in mind because
I’m a storyteller’. With each image, he says ‘you’ve got to be able to read it at a
glance’. Jake likes to ‘get some kind of facial expression or movement . . . human-
ize it so people can connect’. Thomas is also concerned that his pictures of wild
canines might be misrepresented in ‘varmint hunter publications’. He sees ‘all the
animals as having a role in an ecosystem . . . I don’t see any animals as inherently
good or bad’.
The social life of conservation photographs

By now, we have an idea of the educational needs fulfilled by conservation
photography, but what are the characteristics of these images that enable them to
meet those needs? Perceptual, compositional and literary devices are operating
here.
For Thomas and Jake, the first challenge of their assignments is to capture the
essence of their subjects – to borrow a cliché. I observed Thomas during his
eighteen-month assignment in which his editor asked him to recreate a ‘migration in
the imagination’, a glimpse back in time when large herds of mammals roamed the
central plains of the US. I watched as he edited those photographs. In one series, he
had photographed a small herd of buffalo passing small ponds and thread-like
gullies. What were a few buffalo became an illusion of scale. He had met the
conceptual call of the assignment and evoked the legendary vastness of a prehistoric
migration.
Thomas’s photograph of the mock cemetery in Figure 1 also shows how conser-
vation photographers utilize non-nature images and metaphor to convey story
themes. Thomas explained that the photograph ‘bolstered our coverage and gave us
some visual variety in a story that was largely oiled areas and oiled birds. In other
words, it was a non-oil picture that had everything to do with the spill’.
On a technical level, Thomas’s photograph of a logperch (Figure 2) demon-
strates how a close-focusing, wide-angle lens can provide a simultaneous view of
animal detail and environmental context. Thomas described his purpose:
The point of the picture is to show not only the fish in an intimate way, but also to
show the biologists that are working so hard to save these fish . . . the small creatures
in the world don’t get enough press.
Actually, the three story elements of this scene (fish, river and biologists) are
unified by design principles that have their origin in Gestalt, a theory of visual
perception presented by German psychologists in the 1920s (see Arnheim 1974;
8 B.E. Farnsworth
Figure 2. Photograph of a wild logperch (Percina spp.) made during a freshwater stream
population survey in the southeastern United States. The fish was later released unharmed.
Ó 2009 Reproduced with the permission of the photographer.
Beardslee and Wertheimer 1958; Zakia 1993). Gestalt theory describes how viewers
establish relationships between the elements in a scene.
The Gestalt grouping principles of continuity and proximity explain the effec-
tiveness of the logperch scene, made by placing the camera into an underwater
housing. Continuity of the picture elements is facilitated by equal clarity of the
image above and below the water. The horizontal waterline unites the orientation of
the fish and seine net. Thomas relied on proximity to reinforce the conservation
message: logperch-in-hand and biologist are adjacent and seen as one. Certainly, the
hand provides scale. Finally, equal visual weight is afforded fish and survey team,
supporting the notion of a shared ecosystem.
In summary, Thomas’s photograph of a logperch displays much more than the
life of a fish. This highly interpretive image illustrates all four attributes found in
this study that distinguish photographers Thomas and Jake as environmental
educators: the understanding of ecologies, an interpretive-conceptual orientation,
perspectives gained in collaborative knowledge and a sense of critical stewardship.
Theme three: collaborative knowledge

Conservation photographers Thomas and Jake cultivate an extensive network of
organizations and individuals to develop environmental coverage. I observed four
main avenues of collaboration as they interacted with editors, resource profession-
als, local residents and field assistants.
All of the photographer-participants have conversations with their editors, but
Thomas and Jake communicate with editors before, during and after environmental
assignments to keep their ‘eye on the prize’, as Thomas says. Thomas and Jake
generate extended shot lists from their advance research that include objectives in
representative habitat, animal behaviour and human activities. Thomas and Jake are
quick to mention the supervisory role of wildlife agencies such as the US Fish and
Wildlife Service. During endangered species work, they rely upon federally permit-
ted individuals to avoid harm or harassment to their subjects. In the process of
meetings with biologists and reserve managers, Thomas says, ‘you become a mini-
expert on the topic’.
During the development of the projects observed in this study, conservation pho-
tographers Thomas and Jake were involved in conversations with experts in disci-
plines ranging from American Indian studies to archaeology, and from medicine to
political science and religion. By working so broadly to inform their photography,
the knowledge of the conservation photographers is that of a collective of people
and experiences which Raelin (2000, 66–67) refers to as ‘shared learning’. It is a
kind of professional development that Thomas and Jake realize with each new
assignment, providing them with a stronger base from which to interpret the com-
plexity of today’s conservation issues.
Jake participated in the recent ILCP Great Bear RAVE in Canada. I interviewed
him as he prepared for a trip into the field. The ILCP provided media support to
First Nation and conservation groups seeking to halt the Enbridge Corporation pro-
posed Northern Gateway pipeline that would expand Alberta tar sands oil develop-
ment and carry more than half-a-million barrels daily to the British Columbia (BC)
coast. The proposed 1177 km (731 mile) pipeline would traverse a complex of wet-
lands, mountains and over 1000 streams including the headwaters of the Fraser and
Skeena Rivers, and bring massive bulk crude oil tankers to the narrow inlets of the
BC coast for the first time.
Jake told me, ‘we partnered with local communities on the ground . . . the con-
servation groups are helping fund us to come up there, helping with our plane tick-
ets and room and everything’. The ILCP members were invited guests, and the
Great Bear team received direct field support from the Gitga’at First Nation. A
recent article in the Vancouver Sun (Nooski et al. 2011), authored by First Nation
elders, voices opposition to the Northern Gateway project by over 80 First Nations
in BC and Alberta.
Jake told me, ‘you collaborate with all these different groups and you use the
images with the stories . . . and you have a good impact’. The ILCP Great Bear
RAVE is primarily an educational outreach mission and includes several products:
blog, online media galleries, social media and ‘Spoil’, an award-winning film. An
ILCP travelling exhibit – with aerials, wildlife and underwater scenes from the
RAVE – has returned to the small fishing villages of BC to show them the biologi-
cal diversity in their midst. The next audience will be government decision-makers
reviewing the pipeline proposal.
The ILCP will continue to assist community groups in grant work, fundraising
initiatives and media/publicity, but with many new RAVEs to launch, the ILCP will
entrust the long fight to the communities themselves.
A final note on the interpretive skills of the conservation photographers: despite
the amount of advance research, and the privilege of extended assignments, photo
opportunities are often fleeting. This is especially true with wildlife. Thomas had
only seconds to survey the scene and compose each of the images shown in Figures
2–4. Thomas reflected on this:
10 B.E. Farnsworth
You reframe . . . high, low, centre, right, left, the direction of light . . . you work fast
. . . That picture is the result of millions of photographs run through a camera . . . it’s
also the result of interacting, talking about the images, the editing, feedback, and look-
ing at other peoples work along the way too . . . all of that makes you smarter.
Krage (2005, 5) refers to this automaticity in composing images as the ‘perception

of the whole’. This fluency of conservation photographers Thomas and Jake to pro-
duce highly interpretive images relies on advance research, high content knowledge
and experience, and should be likened to the most experienced of teachers.
Theme four: critical stewardship

Conservation photographers Thomas and Jake carried a tone of urgency and per-
sonal responsibility throughout this study. They are preoccupied with disseminating
information and stress the importance of local conservation efforts. All four of the
photographers in this study are members of national conservation organizations, but
only Thomas and Jake participate in native habitat restoration projects in their home
communities. Thomas said, ‘conservation message is really a big motivator for me
because it’s a chance to right wrongs, to show people what’s good . . . who’s doing
good stuff and who’s not doing good stuff’.
When asked if he’s an activist, Jake replied ‘yeah, I’m an activist . . . I’m always
going to try to show the impact . . .. because the bad shit happens all the time, it’s
just there’s no one there to document it’. Thomas said, ‘time is running out . . .. the
world’s going up to 9 billion or 10 billion by mid-century . . . nature is going to get
hammered’. Ethan’s response is more passive and reliant on the viewer of his pho-
tographs. Asked how he could use his Sandhill crane photographs to raise aware-
ness for the bird, he said ‘when there’s a photo of it in the paper, it raises
awareness that way’. Thomas and Jake are focused on getting their body of envi-
ronmental work before the public’s eye. Jake was pointed. He quipped, ‘if you just
make pictures . . . put them on a hard drive and store them in your basement . . .
you’re not an educator’.
Arts-based learning: translating experience into visual representation

Conservation photographers like Thomas and Jake experience what Burke and Cut-
ter-Mackenzie (2010, 313) described as ‘immersion and embodiment’ as they
develop images that translate personal environmental encounters into two-dimen-
sional representations. Burke and Cutter-Mackenzie (313) claim that digital art enjoy-
ment and interpretation can become an ‘immersive pedagogical experience’ that
‘privileges the bodily engagement of the learner in the content or subject matter’.
Thomas assigns great value to such images and hopes that viewers will have a ‘. . .
visceral reaction . . . stop them in their tracks when they read the caption and maybe
they care enough to learn more . . . fund research or fund a captive breeding pro-
gram’. The conservation photographers therefore seek to remanifest those embodied
experiences to create critical consumers of wildlife imagery. Thomas, a regular con-
tributor to National Geographic, also relies on interpretive captions to accompany his
images. This will be revisited in the discussion.
Thomas’s photograph of a brown pelican mired in oil (Figure 3) is a particularly
skilful indexing of Burke and Cutter-Mackenzie’s ‘immersion and embodiment’
(313). Thomas described the moment he encountered the pelican:
Figure 3. Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) mired in petroleum in the aftermath of

the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The bird was cleaned at a
wildlife rehabilitation centre and later released after observation. Ó 2010 Reproduced with
the permission of the photographer.
This pelican was the only oil-mired bird that I had a chance to get close to . . . BP
and their contractors were really serious about trying to prevent photos like this from
being taken . . . while I was shooting I felt very sad that it might be doomed.
I asked Thomas what he had hoped to accomplish when he photographed the

scene:
The point of the pelican picture is to get people to think about what we are doing to
the planet and . . . how miserable a condition that bird was in, it’s really sad and help-
less, and the situation is absolutely filthy and deadly toxic. People are supposed to feel
something when they look at the picture. This picture is the tip of the spear . . . We
are not moving very quickly toward sustainable energy . . . But it comes with this
great cost and ultimately this picture reflects that cost.
An axiom of photographic composition says subjects should face into the open
picture area because it is visually pleasing. Thomas’s composition resists. By fram-
ing the bird tightly into the upper left, he transmitted the very tension and confine-
ment into which both he and the pelican became immersed. Thomas’s image
testifies to Greenwood and Smith’s (2008a, xiv) recognition that ‘citizens are
becoming aware of the need to take responsibility for mediating the impacts of
globalization on local cultures and ecosystems’.
Moments after Thomas encountered the brown pelican mired in oil in the 2010
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a volunteer rescue worker from nearby Plaquemines
Parish, Louisiana, offered to lift the pelican from the oil slick (Figure 4). They took
the bird to a wildlife rehabilitation centre. Thomas recalled, ‘when he picked it up
12 B.E. Farnsworth
Figure 4. Volunteer rescue worker from Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, lifts a brown
pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) from petroleum in the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater
Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The bird was cleaned at a wildlife rehabilitation
centre and later released after observation. Ó 2010 Reproduced with the permission of the
photographer.
and the feathers separated, you could see the oil all over the feathers; that defined
that bird’. Thomas also demonstrated knowledge of the biological needs of the ani-
mal when he told me that ‘these birds have a really hard time thermo-regulating if
their feathers are coated in oil’.
Discussion
The findings in this small-scale study of photojournalists suggest that conserva-
tion photographers Thomas and Jake distinguish themselves as environmental
educators in four areas. They display an understanding of multiple ecologies in
their work, and a clear orientation to the interpretive and conceptual. From their
research and collaborations, they hold a collective body of expertise. Finally,
the conservation photographers have an urgent disposition toward stewardship
that highlights both the impacts upon, and the contributions of, local
communities.
Linking visual and ecological literacy

The eighth World Wilderness Congress (Martin and Kormos 2008) recognized the abil-
ity of photography to bridge the gap between conservation science and the general pub-
lic. Conservation work today is not hampered by the absence of scientific evidence – in
most cases – but rather the ability to communicate abstract scientific notions in a way
that makes sense to decision-makers and convinces the general public.
The need for a more eco-visually literate student body is clear, and conservation
photography should be introduced across grade levels. These arts-based educators,
through the recounting of their lived experience and visual narratives, provide new
formats for an engaging curriculum.
Multiple investigations support the impact of photography study in improving
cognitive skills across the curricula (Arnheim 1969; Gardner 1999; Housen and
Yenawine 2001). The core work of the conservation photographers follows Metros’s
(2008, 103) definition of visual literacy as the ‘ability to decode and interpret (make
meaning from) visual messages and also to be able to encode and compose mean-
ingful visual communications’. Bamford (2002) contends that visual literacy must
consider implications as well. Sinatra (1986) equated the construction of visual mes-
sages to writing textual messages. Visual messages have a unique combination of
objects, space, light, angle and mood to suggest a particular message just as writers
use words, sentences and stylistic treatments to achieve a particular end.
In a report commissioned by the ILCP, Myers (2006) describes the psychometric
properties of photographs and their impact on conservation awareness. Preliminary
findings in a study using rapid visual stimulation by Osborne and Nichols (2011)
found that participants responded more to the content of sea turtle conservation pho-
tographs than such image attributes as colour, composition and aesthetics. Rock
(1975) suggests an additional heuristic explanation – that our interpretation of objects
relies largely on our previous experience with them. Hall’s (2001) examination of race
and representation exemplifies a more critical discussion of photographic discourse.
Behaviourist Tsamasiros (1998, 60) asserted that ‘. . . many in our modern
society are hampered by limited visual literacy skills, and underdeveloped imagery
cognitive abilities . . .’. Despite the virtues of using photography in learning, teach-
ers and students today are not uniformly trained in the principles of visual design
or the psychology of visual communication.
Early design author Ross (1907, 192) referred to learning the principles of design
in this way, ‘it is only as we are trained, exercised, and practiced . . . The sense of
order, which we all have, in a measure, needs to be exercised and developed’.
If the work of conservation photographers is to be meaningfully integrated into
schools, design and environmental education training should be included throughout
the course of teacher training and professional development to help them scaffold
student proficiencies in visual literacy and exploit the new media of environmental
education.
How can educators make use of these images?

Greenwood and Smith (2008b, 356) contends that ‘young people who have devel-
oped a sense of connection to place and community will be more likely to invest
their intelligence and energy in efforts to restore and preserve that which is neces-
sary to support their lives’. Educators can feature student photographs of local wil-
derness or urban gardens in virtual field trips or discussions about place-based
values. Wildscreen’s (2011) ARKive.com project in the UK offers free web-based
video and still archives from among 17,000 species on the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species as well as class-
room activities, teacher materials and links.
Supporting the ethos of place-based education, a compatible manual is the
Visual Classroom curriculum (Museum of Photographic Arts, 2000) that taps the
14 B.E. Farnsworth
visual thinking strategies of Housen and Yenawine (2001) and guides student reflec-
tion on images. I have found this format ideal for guiding student discovery of pho-
tographs and finding the literary constructs (e.g. setting, plot, characters, pathos,
timing) in photojournalistic images. Educators can place unit-related images into
these interpretive frameworks to arouse alternative explanations and reveal new stu-
dent-generated meanings.
Burke and Cutter-Mackenzie’s (2010, 316) schema of using ‘a/r/t-e-ographic
renderings’ to guide students’ interpretation of picture books seems equally apropos
when applied to the guided discussion of environmental photographs as shown
below. Adapting their language, teachers could facilitate a discussion of their stu-
dents’ images according to six question sets. As a starting exercise, the reader is
encouraged to pose these questions on the images in this article.
Opening: How are the notions of environment and place opened up through selected
[environmental photographs]; what co-construction of meaning develops as a conse-
quence of our encounter?
Metaphor and metonym: What ideas and relationship about environment and place are
made accessible through our senses as a result of engaging with these [environmental
photographs]?
Reverberations: How can other people’s/your own artwork/research/teaching reverber-

ate with these [environmental photographs] to reveal and contextualize notions of envi-
ronment and place?
Excess: Is there excess knowledge provoked by these [environmental photographs] that

offer complex ways through which to understand environment and place?
Living Inquiry: How can we integrate the author/illustrator’s and our own lived experi-
ence of environment and place through writing/dialogic appreciation and [environmen-
tal photographs]?
Contiguity: How can the in-between/crossovers of our roles as students/artists/research-

ers/teachers open new understandings of environment and place through [environmen-
tal photographs]?
Conservation photographers provide models of instructional learning technology

with real-time blogs and multimedia. The scope and sequence of a learning unit is
provided in their storylines. Study participant Thomas had this advice for students
and aspiring conservation photographers: ‘they should understand the conservation
issues in their own communities and document that well’. His image of a pelican
mired in oil reminds us that we cannot separate economic, social and environmental
concerns in environmental education today. Ideally, classroom discussions would
revolve around images created by students in their home communities.
Restoring the educational status of photography

Professional photojournalism (and freelance contributions to editorial outlets) has
declined as large media companies consolidate their respective images into mega-
libraries. Citizen-journalists now offer a flood of digital images. This business model
has undermined the interpretive quality of images in publication today (Coomes 2009).
The routine use of wildlife images without context has become normalized in
the publication industry. Typical wildlife photo placements are thumbnail-sized ani-
mal portraits that defy any study of detail and are rarely captioned beyond species
and location. Furthermore, Seppäannen and Väliverronen (2003, 66) noticed that
endangered species are often used as visual ‘metonyms for biodiversity in newspa-
per articles, and landscapes of biodiverse nature are usually portrayed devoid of
humans’. The editorial marketplace, to a great extent, has come to exclude the real
interpretive work of nature and conservation photographers. Paulson (1989) argued
that electronic technologies are inevitably decontextualising. Foucault (1977, 117)
described the ‘death of the author’ syndrome. This idea of decontextualisation

seems a pervasive flaw in modern society. Greenwood and Smith (2008a, xiv) com-
mented that:
the process of formal education in schools and universities [in the US] is often totally
isolated from the immediate context of community life . . . overlooked in the push for
each student to meet prescribed content area standards through decontextualized class-
room instruction.
Photographs of birds trapped in oil, such as Thomas’s image (Figure 2) have

become emblematic of environmental catastrophe, and risk cliché. This study may
serve to foreground the photographers’ experiences and re-contextualise their
images. For the photographers’ narratives to be carried into publication, this
requires a dismantling of the powerlessness of the photographer.
For a few publications, like National Geographic and Smithsonian, conserva-
tion photographers are elevated to the status of consulting educators. Contract
photographers are encouraged to participate in the storyboarding process. Descrip-
tive captions must address the circumstances of the photographs, and disciplinary
experts vet them. These publications expect their contributors to comply with
guidelines on ethical field practices, cultural responsiveness, truth in captioning
and the protection of plant and wildlife. The ILCP has led in the area of standards
development.
I would like to challenge editorial outlets working in nature and environmental
themes to foreground the full meaning of images, to demand captions that describe
responsible content and entertain the photographer’s interpretive message in adjoin-
ing text. With the exception of a few outlets that now include the various media of
the ILCP and like-minded platforms, few publications allow readers to share
latently in the embedded instruction of the photographers.
All of these measures may serve to elevate the role of conservation photogra-
phers and photojournalists as public environmental educators. Enthusiasts are often
quick to ask a photographer what kind of camera was used to capture a scene; may
those questions give way to interest in the photographer’s artistic response or peda-
gogical objective. Education is closely allied with photojournalism and offers a dis-
ciplinary refuge to aspiring young photojournalists who face a daunting job market.
Our schools will benefit greatly from the revitalization to learning that photojournal-
ists can bring.
Environmental education should cultivate an enlightened audience sensitive to
the art/ful work of photojournalists and conservation photographers, helping to
ensure that these empathetic workers will no longer be removed from, but rather
rejoined with, the images they construct.
16 B.E. Farnsworth
Conclusion
As defined in this work, conservation photography is an inherently educational
practice of communicating ecological messages visually, carried out by photogra-
phers with ecological understandings and collaborative skills who represent
affected communities in the development of accurate and highly interpretive the-
matic photo essays, eliciting the critical stewardship and action orientation so
needed in environmental education today. This research may cast conservation
photography in a new light, as a branch of environmental education wherein the
teachers are the skilled photographers who bring multiple qualifications to a more
comprehensive ecological education. It is hoped these findings may stimulate
teachers to launch photography-based projects and discussions around themes in
environmental protection to improve the visual-ecological literacy of their students
and their communities.
It is time to increase the urgency, realism and emotional connection in environ-
mental education. The collective knowledge, skills and products of the conservation
photographers should be part of the ecologically minded curricula. The recent turn
towards conservation photography, joined by the International League of Conserva-
tion Photographers and other editorial and avocational photographers, presents an
opportunity to expand the data sources and collaborations available to environmen-
tal research and enviro-ecological education. For formal educators designing
discrete units, these images shed light on the larger cultural dimensions of environ-
mental education and enhance the teacher’s sense of purpose.
In the same light, schools and the publishing industry must insist on the educa-
tional import of photography and seek out the photographers’ own interpretations
for discussion and publication. Despite the proliferation of digital imagery, these
images are not exclusively the product of technology. This study re-centres the role
of the photographer. Just as an author’s experience determines the written meaning,
it is from the process and practice of the conservation photographers that we can
learn.
This study asserts that professional conservation photographers are indeed
highly qualified environmental educators who possess a suite of technical and
communicative competencies that have previously been ascribed to natural
scientists and teachers. Conservation photography is the unification of visual,
geographical and cultural literacies, and it is the transdisciplinarity of this image-
based work, and the discussions which can arise from it, that are perhaps most
remarkable.
Pedagogical studies can help to further articulate the praxis of conservation
photographers who now stand closely aligned with formal environmental and
place-based education. As this study draws from a small sampling of professional
photographers, it must not be generalized across all workers in the genre. At a mini-
mum, this research may prompt new discussions among conservation photographers
and editorial outlets about how the educational work of these images can be better
transmitted to the public.
Conservation photographers are poised to become significant force multipliers
for environmental education in schools. The work of conservation photographers
should be modelled in school projects to prepare our youth as ‘citizens of the
natural order’ (Orr, 1994, 20) and to connect students meaningfully and artfully
with what Greenwood (2003b, 619) describes as the ‘ecological dimensions of
place’ around them. The online features of conservation photographers today are
a tremendous resource for classroom discussions (and they can alleviate teacher
concerns for copyright infringement). The compelling photographs and fact-based
descriptions of these projects give teachers a ready-made resource in conserva-
tion education topics – topics they may have avoided for fear of becoming too
political.
Conservation photographers convey the scope of ecological relationships and
provide a vehicle for critical thought. The highly accessible work of conservation
photographers today offers the dissemination of new media literacies aimed at life-
long learning and the establishment of cultural predispositions toward environmental

defence in the twenty-first century. In short, conservation photographers get the big
picture of environmental education.
I argue that the formal education academy, writ large, stands to gain from some
academic symbiosis with their non-formal colleagues working outside, yet beside
them, in the realm of conservation photography.
Acknowledgements
I would like to give my gratitude to the participating photographers for their patience
and candour during this study. The images in this article are used with the permission of
participant Thomas. I would like to thank my academic advisor, Dr Marcus Weaver-
Hightower for his insightful comments during the early drafts. Mikael Castro and Trevor
Frost of the International League of Conservation Photographers provided background
information related to the ILCP vision and current RAVE campaigns. I would like to
acknowledge the support of the College of Education & Human Development and the
Office of the Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of North
Dakota for providing travel grants to present this research at the Annual Meeting of the
American Educational Research Association (AERA) in New Orleans in April 2011.
Notes on contributor
Bruce Evan Farnsworth, BS Field Zoology, MA Environmental Education, is a PhD
candidate in the Department of Educational Foundations & Research at the University of
North Dakota. His doctoral studies and recent publications examine the use of the
photographic narrative in environmental education, advocate for community-based
conservation initiatives in the upper Amazon basin and propose culturally responsive
reforms to educational practice in ecotourism. Bruce’s broad perspective draws from his
formal training as an educator (licenses in art education and media), editorial
photographer and former park ranger with the US National Park Service. During five
years of continuous residence in Amazonian Ecuador, he served as the coordinator of
interpretation at the Centre for the Interpretation of Amazonian Ecuador where he
enjoyed transformative experiences in acculturation with lowland Quichua and mestizo
communities. Bruce is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ecuadorian Rivers
Institute and a 2011–2012 Fulbright Dissertation Grant Alternate to Peru. His
documentary photography project in South America, ‘Las Cabiceras de la Amazonía:
Locals Working for the Global,’ has recently been accepted for sponsorship by the Blue
Earth Alliance (Seattle, US).
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Conservation photography as environmental education: focus on

Educational Foundations & Research, College of Education & Human Development,

This research examines the genre of conservation photography as a legitimate

ISSN 1350-4622 print/ISSN 1469-5871 online

as ‘the result of photographic talent combined with environmental understanding

Working as an embedded researcher-photographer, I observed four full-time photo-

In what ways do the conservation photographers compare with, or exceed, environ-

Aesthetics plus pedagogy

Conservation photography: new vision for environmental education

To further environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography. We

The ILCP organizes science-styled Rapid Assessment Visual Expeditions

Reforms brought by conservation photography answer Orr’s call for reality-

during a nature-related assignment?’ and ‘How do you create a conservation

Theme one: understanding of ecologies

Thomas’s experience demonstrates a useful dilemma-based case study in the real

Theme two: interpretive-conceptual orientation

The social life of conservation photographs

Theme three: collaborative knowledge

Krage (2005, 5) refers to this automaticity in composing images as the ‘perception

Theme four: critical stewardship

Arts-based learning: translating experience into visual representation

Figure 3. Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) mired in petroleum in the aftermath of

I asked Thomas what he had hoped to accomplish when he photographed the

Linking visual and ecological literacy

How can educators make use of these images?

Reverberations: How can other people’s/your own artwork/research/teaching reverber-

Excess: Is there excess knowledge provoked by these [environmental photographs] that

Contiguity: How can the in-between/crossovers of our roles as students/artists/research-

Conservation photographers provide models of instructional learning technology

Restoring the educational status of photography

described the ‘death of the author’ syndrome. This idea of decontextualisation

Photographs of birds trapped in oil, such as Thomas’s image (Figure 2) have

long learning and the establishment of cultural predispositions toward environmental

Blewitt, J. 2010. Media, ecology and conservation. London: Green Books.

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