Backstory
This photograph of power lines passing through a tree, shot on my first roll of Tri-X black & white film back in 1990, represents the relationship between culture and nature. It is a theme that has driven my interests and work over the years, as I continue to rediscover it in various ways across many contexts. I have chased it with the camera and subsequently with my research into climate tech and my design consulting work.
During my studies at Rhode Island School of Design, I saw a lecture by ecological design pioneer John Todd, where he spoke about new possibilities for engineering harmonious relationships between the built environment and the natural world. His presentation was so compelling I ran up to speak with him afterward and secured a summer internship at his company in Burlington VT called Living Technologies.
We spent hot days fabricating a shipping container-sized Living Machine (ecological waste water purification system) bound for the island of Sardinia, Italy. That experience transformed my view of “industry” from something destructively out of control to something of great hope and potential, when applied to the world with a conscientious mind-set.
I’ve been inspired by that perspective ever since, transforming a thematic discovery into a lifelong pursuit, by applying design and storytelling to help people create new ways of cooperating with nature and communicate them to others in compelling ways for the benefit of creating a society that lives in harmony with the planet.
When I saw Al Gore give dire warnings about climate change at the World Environment Day conference in San Francisco in 2005, it opened my eyes to the scale and urgency of the issue. Later, when I traveled to Copenhagen as a photojournalist covering the youth delegation to COP 15 in 2009, I was disenchanted by the lack of progress being made. It came clear that the politicians were struggling to gain consensus on commitment to action, while the voices of disenfranchised masses were being stifled on the street outside. That’s when it began to dawn on me that the best way to live in a better world is to make this a better world - that we can build better products and energy systems and urban developments and forms of transportation - and if we make them, people will adopt them. Because without viable alternatives, status quo will prevail. And the more I looked for case studies of innovation the more inspiring and optimistic activity I discovered, as I still do today.
