“The Labour of Altered Landscapes” by Tucker Sharon

In the work of photographers such as Robert Adams and John Stanmeyer, an iconography of deforestation has evolved, one in which images of scarred hillsides and bald watersheds read as an indictment of modernity. By portraying the clear-cut wastelands of the Pacific Northwest, or the scorched forests of Amazonia these photographers force the viewer to confront the effects of over consumption.

The work presented in “The Labour of Altered Landscapes” aims to complicate the iconography of Amazonian deforestation by addressing some of the myriad causal components of deforestation, especially questioning what kinds of labor practices are fed and engendered by the diversion of ecological processes into commodity flows. Set in the Peruvian Amazon, the resulting images therefore, deal less with the scarred landscapes that typify the iconography of Amazonian deforestation. Instead they show the work of day labourers and arrendatarios planting cacao plantations or the stevedores and heavy machinery that load and unload the commodities that ply Amazonian waters.

Photo Exhibit on display until July 20th in the LOBBY GALLERY at the Liu Institute for Global Issues.

6476 NW Marine Drive, UBC campus

Lobby Gallery hours: Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 5:00pm.

For more information about this exhibit and the gallery, visit the Lobby Gallery’s website or the Virtual Lobby Gallery.