Buchcover Photographs of Environmental Phenomena | Gisela Parak | EAN 9783839430859 | ISBN 3-8394-3085-2 | ISBN 978-3-8394-3085-9

Susanne Leikam, ICON, 22/4 (2017): Among the publication's other great merits are Gisela Parak's continuous ambition to embed all photographic images and historical, political, cultural and medial developments in their (trans)national and global contexts.

Graham Burnett, Isis, 6 (2018): This book will be relevant to any assessment of the current media mechanisms that inform collective understanding of the earth and its ecological dynamics. Young scholars interested in this area would do well to follow up on her notes in order to delve further into the resources she cites.

Besprochen in: Isis, 6 (2018), Graham Burnett

Ulrike Heine, Rundbrief Fotografie, 24/1 (2017): Parak hat in zahlreichen, auch wenig erschlossenen Archiven umfangreich recherchiert und präsentiert eine verknüpfende Auswertung der vielfältigen Dokumente und, in einigen Fällen, überraschende und einleuchtende Neuinterpretationen bekannten Materials.

Besprochen in: Isis, 6 (2018), Graham Burnett

Photographs of Environmental Phenomena

Scientific Images in the Wake of Environmental Awareness, USA 1860s-1970s

von Gisela Parak

Since well before the debates about global warming and climate change, images have played an important part in bringing changes in nature and the environment to the attention of the general public. Moreover, most of these images have historic precursors. Gisela Parak illuminates how the synergy of photography and science gave rise to a class of photographs of environmental phenomena in the history of the United States of America, and how these images supported and instructed the scientific pursuit of knowledge, and were furthermore used as a persuasive means for directing public opinion.