I am exploring ways to depict a disconnection with the landscape in reference to climate change denial through staged site-specific photography. Thinking about the notion of invisibility in the age of heightened surveillance I have been conceptualizing works centered around how invisibility and denial feed into representations of climate change. In this series, Don’t Be a Square, I am staging site-specific interventions in the landscape that when seen through a camera lens disrupt the landscape much like a glitch in the image. I see the Anthropocene age as a glitch in time; it is so short in the greater timeline of life, and yet has caused so much havoc. In my performative photographs, this glitch can be seen as a pixel, a cubicle, or a portal, yet there is a glimpse of humanity that is both camouflaged into the land and completely disconnected from it. I use my own body and sets I build in dialogue with the landscape to create these images. In doing so, I experience a deep connection with the land and simultaneously a disconnect. I see an inherent cultural disassociation with the environment as directly linked to climate change, and this is what I hope to highlight through these images.

As creatives, we are often compelled to document the beauty and sadness of the world around us. To capture photos of our environment is something to which we are naturally drawn. Whether it is to show the heartbreak or the wonder–to me, this is what this category is all about.

And as visual people, we do what we do best: create images of our environment in the hopes that the work we do will not only challenge or change the status quo; but create a new way of looking at things, as well.

As I viewed the submissions, I was acutely aware of how urgently the images were calling out to be seen, to bear witness to the environmental splendor and the degradation that they are documenting. I was also thinking about how, as creatives, we must flip the narrative once in a while, and change our approach. To get people to see the environment in a different light, in a different way… in a smart way that feels cohesive and well-thought-out… to make the viewer pause as if they were seeing the subject matter in a whole new light... in a whole new way.

For this reason, for the 2023 Environmental Award, I have chosen Don’t Be a Square by Margeaux Walter.

Don’t Be a Square is smart and clever and speaks to the disconnection we feel when confronted by climate change denial. The artist brilliantly uses herself as a glitch in the image that makes the viewer pause to take a longer look at what is really going on. Besides being gorgeous, well-done images, I really liked that they made me pause and really try to understand what Walter was trying to communicate through them: the notion of being invisible and under constant surveillance at the same time.

It was an absolute pleasure to view all of the well-done and meaningful work for this award. Thank you all for sharing your images.

- Quentin Nardi • Chief Photo Editor, Smithsonian magazine