The term ‘anthropocene’ derives from “anthropo”, meaning “human” with “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time. Anthropocene is the period where human impact has dramatically changed the natural land and its environment. This includes things such as:

• Global Warming/climate change
• Emission of carbon dioxide
• Extinction
• Ocean acidification
• Habitat destruction
• Widescale natural resource extraction
• An increase in extremeness and frequency of severe weather conditions e.g. earthquakes, tornados and storms

Photographers are exploring this concept to bring attention and awareness to the situation. By them doing this, it shows people the truth about what is really happening in the world and highlighting the severity of these things and that we need immediate change.

The photographs that come from this issue are both beautiful and ugly/jarring. This is because the way that some images are captured, they are appealing because they might show a large area of land which has patterns or colours that draw your attention. However, there are also images that do capture, in raw, the intensity of these situations and a lot of these types of photos are very unattractive and unpleasing to look at. There are also photos which appear beautiful but the meaning or background behind them is horrible therefore changing your perspective on it. All of these images bring light on the environment and what is happening to it.

Although these photographers are helping, it isn’t necessarily solving problem. Rather it is spreading the conversation, provoking thoughts that will hopefully provoke change.