anthropocene introduction

What is Anthropocene?

The Anthropocene epoch is an unofficial unit of geological time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the Earth’s climate and ecosystems. The word comes from the Greek terms for human and new. The Anthropocene is distinguished as a new period either after, or within the Holocene, the current epoch, which began approximately 10,000 years ago with the end of the last glacial period.

Anthropocene in photography

Anthropocene in photography is a very powerful way of showing the world how we, as humans have changed the Earth and how our actions are impacting the world everyday. This is usually shown in a negative perspective. In photography this can be shown through; landscape, abstract and portrait photography. To tackle this topic we could capture pictures of man made objects such as plastics (e.g. shopping bags, bottles, online shopping packaging) to create awareness of how much plastic and packaging is used where it isn’t necessary and its affect on the planet. In addition to that, if people see the affects on the planet in a more visual way rather than reading about it people may give it more thought as seeing it first hand could have a much greater impact.

Examples of Anthropocene in photography

Landscape approach to Anthropocene