IMAGE MAKING THAT FACILITATES DISCOURSE, CREATES ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS A POTENTIAL TO CHANGE PUBLIC POLICY

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. During my presentation, I will explain how photographic image-making, along with groundwater and environmental geology field trips guide students from being passive observers to becoming active participants by bringing awareness to such environmental topics as acid mine drainage pollution from Pennsylvania’s coal mines to the awareness of Penn State University's wastewater treatment recycling program that replenishes groundwater through the Living Filter Project.

Four examples will be provided: The Penn State Living Filter Project (local), 3000 Miles of Acid Mine Drainage in My Backyard (regional) and a couple of international examples from Egypt: 1) The Valley of Kings where I have photographed and mapped fracture traces that connect and intersect tombs creating water pathways that allow for episodic flow causing destruction to world class tomb interiors. 2) the Wadi El-Say’ada regional land reclamation project near Edfu, Egypt and its impact on fertile Nile farmland, regional villages, and the Hierakonpolis Templetown Archeological site.

In these Egyptian examples my images are linked together and a visual story is formed that is imbedded into white papers, field project exit and end of year reports. These images are used as evidence to visually demonstrate groundwater issues in a formal way depicting environmental concepts to non-English speaking people at all levels from villagers to educators at the University level, to antiquities inspectors, Ministries of Housing, Antiquities, Agriculture and Drainage and to an international conference on water organized by UNESCO.

When used in this way, image making facilitates discourse that creates awareness and has the potential to change public policy at an international level.