Exhibtion Visit. The Environmental Photographer of the Year Award; Grizedale Visitor Centre, Cumbria

EPOTY is an international showcase for the very best in environmental photography and film.  Exhibited were 60 images from an entry of 10.000 from photographers from over 70 countries.  These images reflect the urgent environmental and social concerns that affect the world today.  Topics include natural disasters triggered by the changing climate, the effects of population growth on the urban environment and the resourceful ways that the human race is preserving the earth's biodiversity.

All of the images were mounted on PVC or aluminium and there were detailed captions including camera make, model and settings.  I particularly enjoyed the central display of a series of nine images depicting the salt lake Urmia in Iran.  The photographer Pedram Yazdani travelled to Iran in 2015 to document the plight of the lake.  He spent 10 days cycling round it recording it photographically and hearing the stories of the people who live on its shores.  It is regarded with sadness by these people who regard it as a 'family member' disappearing before their eyes.  In the last 20 years its surface area has decreased by 80-90%.  Attributed in part to climate change the biggest factor in its decline has been its mismanagement as a resource, a scenario akin to that of the Aral Sea in central Asia.

Many images portray the world as it really is instead of how we would like to think it is.  One photograph of the Taj Mahal particularly struck me.  We are used to seeing this gleaming white icon from its front/tourist side.  This image shows it from the back and features a man searching among the squalid rubbish that abounds on this side.  It is also an example how genres are blurred in this day and age; it could fit into portrait, landscape, travel or documentary categories, although travel photography probable transcends all genres.