“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” John Muir
The great Scottish-American naturalist, John Muir inspired the photographer Ansel Adams and led to the creation of the U.S. National Parks Service. Muir, a devoted follower of Charles Darwin, understood like Darwin, that all living things were connected that they rely on a shared environment and that nature can provoke a profound sense of wonder.
Photographing the Icelandic landscape provided me an emotional connection to nature. Its wild empty spaces gave me a sense of vulnerability, but also made me conscious of the environment itself. Looking at energy cycles and their feedback effects on nature provoked a fuller appreciated of climate change. It led me to the concept of The Metabolic Landscape where my photographs confront viewers with the natural metabolism of the Earth and the newer social metabolism established by humans.
For millennia, the climate balance was set by the carbon emissions of volcanoes and the absorption of carbon dioxide back into world’s oceans and forests. Today, the burning of fossil fuels has shifted their balance.
Although we know the Earth’s average surface temperature has increased by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) since the 1880s, driven by human-caused emissions, it is another thing to witness the effect first hand. this fact, but it is another to witness its effects or make the emotional connection to our lives. Muir was more right than he knew. Everything really is connected. Environmental destruction, once localised, ripples across the planet. My photographs investigate the connections between the burning of coal, the main source of the world’s electric power and the melting of glaciers and icebergs.
In land adjacent to one of Muir’s beloved national parks – I came to recognise other connections, as fracking operations for oil in North Dakota graphically reveal the power of the hydrocarbon industry,
Now when I engage in the complexities of this work, I follow Muir, understanding that facts and feelings must go together.
![Craters of Laki, Iceland, 2011](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509538440-G52FHMD2209A1RX9U7RN/IMG_3903_100cm.jpg)
![Lónsheiði, Iceland, 2011](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509612766-B9FETB0HGBTKGXGGQFPP/IMG_3706-Edit_100cm.jpg)
![Ice Mountain, Jökulsárlón Lake, Iceland, 2011](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509630523-PVQPB786OHMS6RFCUS0K/metabolic-landscape-001.jpg)
![Water held by the cold, Disko Bay, Greenland, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509632962-28CPME68LPG09SGZ6MSE/metabolic-landscape-002+2.jpg)
![Water held by the cold, Disko Bay, Greenland, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509626084-2TZ29GX4MTH7BRHYN149/melted-world-003.jpg)
![Water held by the cold, Disko Bay, Greenland, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509634819-ZZ30AZM5L1H89ZOXRVCK/Untitled-2.jpg)
![Cliff Erosion, Burton Bradstock, Dorset, UK, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509566951-VUSYWDZRSURFTADJ4D5G/_GGP1582.jpg)
![Costal Protection Study, Whitley Bay, Sandbanks, Dorset, England, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509544352-AI17XS5EOB5ZBHBUFBNE/_GGP1446.jpg)
![Bidston Windmill, Birkenhead, Wirral Peninsula, England, 2012](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509606176-V58LKFMFO33MUMF6WGDK/Bidston+Windmill%2C+Birkenhead%2C+Wirrel+Peninsula%2C+England%2C+2012.jpg)
![Wind Pump, Williams County, North Dakota, USA, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509528477-ZKNTXK5N24QFQCBDT88Z/_GGP7330.jpg)
![Wind Turbine, Ward County, North Dakota, USA, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509544575-YZL3D5IOVIDHV8WM2MNC/_GGP7050.jpg)
![Feldheim Renewable Energy Village, Brandenburg, Germany, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509522859-S6CBCRUNNZTHV3GOQDE4/Feildheim+Renewable+Energy+Village%2C+Brandenburg%2C+Germany%2C+2013.jpg)
![Platforma Solar de Almería, Tabernas Desert, Province of Almería, Spain, 2016](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1653392713601-OPKUJG8UQSHC3XGIKJAI/Feildheim+Renewable+Energy+Village%2C+Brandenburg%2C+Germany%2C+2013.jpg)
![Miner Hoarding, Longyearbyen, Norwegian Mining Town, Svalbard,2012](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509623948-40P316GLTEBQEW7SAJVD/IMG_9568.jpg)
![Titan Crane, Hotellneset Coal Harbour, Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Norway, 2012](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509627553-7VYFIJ6H9YMP0CEZQSYP/IMG_9607+copy.jpg)
![Brown Coal Mining, Cottbust, Germany, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509582987-EUMMVSSQXHNGEEYELT65/_GGP4873.jpg)
![Open Cast Mine, Cottbus-North, Brandenburg, Germany,2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509585173-700X104UUDK1MOQEXXCC/_GGP4908.jpg)
![Belleville Nuclear Power Cooling Tower, Belleville-sur-Loire, Cher, France, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509572780-6GF3HC0FTZFSCF4Z3QV5/_GGP3400.jpg)
![Dampierre Nuclear Power Station Cooling Towers, Dampierre-en-Burly, Loiret, France, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509573837-2QQOY9JGSMAGG44ZTPH1/_GGP3482.jpg)
![Abandoned Oil Rig, Cromarty Firth, Ross-Shire, Scotland, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509633252-C38P2TIB5QAA11DJ4J39/my-anthropocene-008.jpg)
![Cromarty Firth, Ross-Shire, Scotland, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509590563-EZ71XKSLYO0K7CMX515L/_GGP5265.jpg)
![Gas Well Extension, Custer Trail, Golden Valley County, North Dakota, USA, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509601678-5VYML4C1JO6QS8OXPNTK/4-CUSTERS-REVENGE-GOLDEN-VALLEY-COUNTY-NORTH-DAKOTA-USA-2013.jpg)
![Fugitive Gas, McKenzie County, North Dakota, USA, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509595725-YHG06F0J7L1JTM6UATOH/_GGP7406.jpg)
![Hydraulic fracturing pad, Pecos, Texas, USA, 2018](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1653392712997-IKQICGJ2UBMFPQNJULN6/DSC04800.jpg)
![Fresh water storage for hydraulic fracturing, Kermit, Texas, USA, 2018](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509608505-MIBNR80YWXMSJO9IX01J/DSC04663.jpg)
![Water storage for hydraulic fracturing, Kermit, Texas, USA, 2018](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1653392711857-1TTS1S674VFD1OKCOFUB/DSC04792.jpg)
![Abandoned hydraulic fracturing pad, Coyanosa, Texas, USA,2018](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509611437-8E5M987YGSMQLJ05Y7XJ/DSC04960.jpg)
![Negratín Reservoir, Andalusia, Spain,2016](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509607764-O1Q66U5M2248CXSAGLUA/DSC02465-1.jpg)
![Hoover Dam, Arizona, Nevada Border, USA,2015](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509611886-7IH1QDBNZC52HU3Q31EP/earth-wind-water-001.jpg)
![Maentwrog Hydroelectric Power Station, Trawsfynydd Resevoir, Gwynedd, Wales, 2013](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509534938-AJYGX88YA33KPTSZADEN/Maentwrog+Hydroelectric+Power+Station+Wales+copy.jpg)
![Turf Cultivation, La Qunita, California, USA, 2015](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509531938-8GXLHIDDP0N42K3D4S1L/_GGP1400.jpg)
![Storm Channel, Indian Springs Golf Course, Palm Springs, California, USA 2015](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509554964-3DWJP4OPQQ0TOIL0KHVY/_GGP1479.jpg)
![Suspended construction of the Sivens Resevoir, Tarn, France,2014](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509603788-83L7T966ARS75WLI5NNL/_GGP8678.jpg)
![Covered Geothermal Borehole, Bjarnarflag, Krafla, Iceland, 2011](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509604835-GREROTNT40V358SFXS4O/alternative-energy-007+copy.jpg)
![Geothermal Plant, Palm Springs, California, USA, 2015](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509562462-DX4J73P162O8KYP91QC0/_GGP1573.jpg)
![Geothermal Power Plant, Krafla, Iceland, 2011](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509604238-DXTBEE2ZSQWEPYOVJTTC/alternative-energy-005.jpg)
![Bjarnarflag Geothermal Power Station, Krafla, Iceland, 2011](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57876e45414fb50d7405f10c/1651509542923-8E34W3078W5ZMLV5ZTGR/IMG_3604.jpg)