Camille Seaman Lecture: Melting Away

December 7, 2014
2:00 – 3:30pm
THNOC’s Williams Research Center
Free and open to the public

For ten years Camille Seaman has documented the rapidly changing landscapes of Earth’s polar regions. As an expedition photographer aboard small ships in the Arctic and Antarctic, she has chronicled the accelerating effects of global warming on the jagged face of nearly fifty thousand icebergs. Seaman’s unique perspective of the landscape is entwined with her Native American upbringing: she sees no two icebergs as alike; each responds to its environment uniquely, almost as if they were living beings. Through Seaman’s lens, each towering chunk of ice, breathtakingly beautiful in layers of smoky gray and turquoise blue, takes on a distinct personality, giving her work the feel of majestic portraiture. Her new monograph, Melting Away: A Ten-Year Journey through Our Endangered Polar Regions features seventy-five of Seaman’s photographs, life affirming images that reveal not only what we have already lost, but more importantly what we still have that is worth fighting to save.

In her presentation, Camille Seaman will share images from Melting Away, discuss her journey as an artist and explain how she came to photograph environmental issues.

BIO:
Camille Seaman strongly believes in capturing photographs that articulate that humans are not separate from nature. She is a photographer and explorer whose photographs have been featured in prestigious publications, including National Geographic and TIME magazine. Seaman has a bachelor’s degree in the fine arts photography from the State University of New York at Purchase. She has won several photography awards, including a National Geographic Award and the Critical Mass Top Monograph Award. In 2008, Seaman was honored with a solo exhibit, “The Last Iceberg,” at the National Academy of Sciences. In 2011 Seaman was named a TED Fellow and in 2013 she was named a Stanford University Knight Fellow. Camille Seaman advocates the importance of recognizing the relationship between humans and their natural surroundings.

Camille will be available to sign copies of Melting Away immediately following her presentation.

Camille will also be teaching a one-day workshop photographing Louisiana’s wetlands on Friday, Dec 5.