Magazine front cover Daylight Magazine The relationship between humans and the natural environment has been the focus of an astoundingly large breadth of contemporary art. This body functions as an open set; its boundaries are limitless, as all artistic statements, at some fundamental level, confront what it means to be human. Since the 1970s photography's participation in the discourse has been remarkably one-sided. The once limitless landscape had been altered, denigrated by industrialization, sprawl and vapid consumerism. Photography recorded this transformation with stark, menacing minimalism as the world continued to explore definitions of "documentary photography."
The legacy of "New Topographics" has dominated photography's reaction to the ecological repercussions of modernity. It has drawn what seems to be an enduring line between humankind and nature. Perhaps this duality no longer serves as an appropriate model. It has given birth to an era whose art more readily indulges in the hyper-real consequences of consumerism than in proposing alternatives.
In exploring issues of "Sustainability," this edition of Daylight suggests that the dualistic representation of humans and nature can change, and that documentary photography's role in this transformation can range in scope from the immense landscape as seen in David Maisel's stunning aerials of a breathing, living Los Angeles; to the intimate images of people embodying lifestyles of low environmental and economic impact, as seen through the work Joel Sternfeld and Leonie Purchas; to the Daylight-initiated self-representative documentary work of domestic renewable fuel producers.
Sustainability measures progress not in trajectories, but in cycles. Technology buttressed by reason was the motivating factor in modernity's march toward our present ecological and societal maladies. They will now aid us in rebuilding. Cycles of consumption and excessive waste are brought into balance through grassroots industries like biofuel production. Alternative lifestyles have increased exponentially in popularity. To strive toward sustainability is to maintain hope. Confronted with the plethora of problems our civilization has faced and will face, the simple choice to sustain may one day lead to substantial change in the political interactions of nations. The question this issue of Daylight addresses is not so much "What is Sustainability?" but, rather, "What can Sustainability be?"
Photography is an indispensable tool in grappling with this question. The photograph, by framing a specific section of this earth, intimates a vast system of connectivity. It can be a snapshot from a disposable camera or a carefully composed image from a large-format view camera: it is simultaneously high and low art. We hope you enjoy this issue of Daylight. We hope it raises new questions about humans' role on this earth and photography's part in shaping that role. And we hope you will join us in this ongoing exploration.
