Rural ruins in America's climate change story: photojournalism, perception, and agency in Shishmaref, Alaska

    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Herrmann, Victoria Stephanie (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2019
    URL:
    https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2018.1525272
    Published:
    USA: Taylor & Francis
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 25 Document Number: D10550
    Journal Title:
    Annals of the American Association of Geographers
    Journal Title Details:
    109(3) : 857-874
    Subject Term:
    environment, environmental communication, history, image, perception, photographs, rural communities, socio-economic aspects, storytelling, visual communication, landscape, bias, climate, culture, cultural identity, climate change, environmental issues, natural disasters, photojournalism, and cultural factors
    Notes:
    19 pages., via online journal., This article provides a visual analysis of a set of peopleless photographs taken in 2006 of a falling home erosion in the village of Shishmaref, Alaska, that have been widely circulated in reporting about the relocation of the village due to climate change. It asks whether the visual contract between spectator and absent climate change victim extends beyond an empathetic response to action toward restoring the lost home. The article explores the relationship of contemporary scholarship on postmodern ruination in U.S. Rust Belt cities and the Shishmaref fallen home photograph as a means to analyze the work done by rural ruination.

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