Visualising climate linked migration
Images matter. Photographs help audiences to visualise a story, building mental pictures and cues that contribute to how they interpret and ‘see’ an issue.
As a first step we have been looking at the current state of climate-linked migration photography, seeking recurring themes and to identify a prevailing visual language. What follows is a broad outline of some of what we have seen so far.
Prioritising the act of moving over the stories of the people featured
There are two types of image that dominate the visual coverage of climate linked migration - people on the move and people seeking shelter. Images of climate migrants commonly focus on the journey, visually prioritising the act of movement itself, rather than the people in the image and their stories. Often this takes the form of groups of people travelling on foot, carrying their belongings, and moving through a landscape. Regularly this is in the context of fleeing extreme weather events such as flooding and droughts, and the images visually suggest the drama of fleeing an immediate crisis. The other image we typically see is people seeking refuge in camps set up by aid agencies. Often these are generic, stock photographs used to visually represent the idea of climate-linked migration. Both of these image themes often lack context and nuance. Even more significantly they fail to communicate a more detailed story of those featured beyond the original news event. Who are they? What is their story? Where are they now?
Then there’s jeopardy and danger. You see many photographs that emphasise the risks being taken by those on the move. With this comes a heavy presence of photographs taken of people crossing borders, often at night or under the watch of law enforcement and border patrols, riding on the outside of trains, crossing water by boat, and commonly showing children accompanied by adults. These contexts make for dramatic imagery, and images that visually emphasise the risks being taken by those featured, however, does the inherent visual drama of these contexts contribute to an outsize influence of certain flashpoints within the visual storytelling of climate-linked migration? Without more detail, context and space for the stories of those featured to be told, these images can come to represent climate-linked migration without communicating a wider understanding visually. When used as stock imagery, does their inherent visual drama lead to a reduced representation of other forms of migration in the face of a changing climate?
The use of use of stock photography of climate change impacts misses an opportunity to communicate context and nuance
Stock photographs of climate change impacts often accompany images depicting the ‘journey’ of climate-linked migration, and are also frequently used in place of them. These images often depict severe weather events, the destruction they have wrought, and those affected. They are used as visual reasoning for why people need to leave one location for another, and often do this in an emotionally powerful, compelling way. But when stock images are chosen for visual impact alone, this leads to a prioritisation of imagery that is removed from the nuance of a story. Longterm, slower, less obviously visual impacts of climate change are challenging to convey through photography, particularly in a single image, and risk being lost by default of this.
What is often missing from the photography of climate-linked migration is detailed, long-form visual storytelling that centres, in detail and with empathy, the story of those featured. This is particularly true when thinking about the destination and future of those featured in images. Photographs are commonly used in a more illustrative form, adding visual structure to a page or piece of content - this can add context, but often misses an opportunity to engage an audience on a deeper level with compelling, empathetic visuals that communicate a more nuanced reality. In this way, the photography of climate-linked migration is often limited to more surface level visualisations of the issue rather than more complex, engaging visual storytelling.
There are many practical reasons for this, including the cost and time of developing and producing these detailed stories, as well as the frequent need by publishers for more generic, anonymous imagery. However, when images are used in this way it is essential to consider what, and who, is being used to visually define a deeply complex story.
Aiming for more nuanced, detailed and engaging photography
Vast, global issues, such as climate change and climate-linked migration, can be hard for individuals to define visually in their understanding, and images can play a helpful and important role in this, adding context and detail, nuance and emotion to stories. However they can also perpetuate damaging and dangerous narratives. Iconic images and visual tropes can gain outsize influence in their storytelling, and take on the role of defining how an issue is visualised, even if this bares little, or no resemblance to the reality.
Climate Visuals is working on a new project that seeks to create a new set of guidance for the accurate, ethical and effective portrayal of climate-linked migration through photography. The guidance will be a practical resource for anyone working with the photography of climate-linked migration, promoting a way of thinking about images that centres ethical, detailed and accurate visual storytelling and builds on Climate Visuals’ evidence base of what makes for engaging climate change photography, bringing humanity back to the conversation. Through developing this new guidance, specifically focussed on the photography of climate-linked migration, we are seeking to promote a way of thinking about the photography of this issue that prioritises those effective stories, and encourages a photographic practice that is ethical, detailed and nuanced. The guidance will be launched later in the year.
* This work is supporting our migration programme, funded by Unbound Philanthropy. Alongside this Climate Visuals stream of work, we are also looking at research conducted at effectively communicating the intersection of climate change and its impact on patterns of human movement, with new resources being published in Autumn 2024. Sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with our latest publications.