"Baptism by Fire"

Increased temperatures, low precipitation levels, and decreased soil moisture are strongly contributing to the spread and frequency of wildfires. Although wildfires occur naturally, our shifting environmental reality has essentially turned forests into kindling for wildfires. This has resulted in the destruction of animal habitats, entire communities, and many natural resources. 

The top right corner of my remixed image suggests a window and a metaphor for how much of society witnesses these events taking shape – through T.V., magazine and news sources. Fortunately, most people in the United States are exempt from experiencing wildfires first-hand. 

I incorporate images of lush forests, flower growth, and hikers as a reminder of what was lost in the path of fire.  

Remixed by Jeff Gagnon

Original image citation: "Baptism by Fire" Backpacker: Get Out More, August 2017, pg. 84

Passado do Lagoa de Fago

Lagoa de Fago also known as the Lake of Fire located on Sao Miguel Island in the Portuguese archipelago Azores. Fifteen million years ago this lake and mountain was a volcanic site. I picked this image because it holds special value because I will actually be hiking this site very soon! I am excited to explore the vegetation and surroundings of the mountain and the lake and comparing it to my New England hike experiences. 

It is interesting to me how landscapes can change over time. At first look, the viewer would have no idea that this was an active volcano many years ago. I wanted to create a work that illustrates past and present when I remixed the image. Nature can grow, erupt and change. Within my remixed image I wanted to show the erupting lava from the volcano in which I used collaged mixed papers. The contrast between warm and hot colors display the past, while the cool colors show the present. I also used warm chalk pastel to transform the lake water into fire for the past.

Remixed by Jennifer DeAngelis

Orginial Image Citation- Men's Journal Magazine, 2017 page 100, Photographer unknown

Tusks

I was struck by the haunting image of elephant and rhino tusks in the back of a truck. The animals were savagely slaughtered and the tusks removed by poachers. The tusk’s ivory funds terrorist groups such as the Lord’s Resistance Army. I was saddened to see how heartless these groups are, and how they view animals as worthless, save for their monetary value. In my remix, I replaced the tusks with green “branches.” I added blue sky, and beams of green light (dark and light green) to symbolize sunlight, but also to symbolize light shining on the issue of poaching. Hopefully with enough awareness, and also new technology which tracks poachers, this atrocious practice will one day be eliminated.

Remixed by Nancy Merrifield

Original Image Citation: Photo by: Brent Shirton, National Geographic, September 2015

Manta Love

The image I selected was a diver photographing enormous manta rays which seem to be swarming to get a closer look at her. These graceful giants are hunted for the gills. These gentle giants are now on the watch list. The diver in the photograph, Dr. Andrea Marshall, has dedicated her life to their study and conservation.
I chose this image because of my own recent experiences diving and observing my favorite sea creatures - sea turtles, up close and personal in their habitat, the coral reef. I am a newly certified diver and the experience diving underwater is breath-taking literally and figuratively. While diving I thought if more people had this experience they would develop a greater appreciation for the vast ocean life that exists below.

My remixed picture shows a group of young people smiling below the mantas. If I could have further remixed the photo I would have added wetsuits and dive gear to each child in the picture.
My message is simple, if you see them up close you may just fall in love. 

In the words of a wise Senegalese Conservationist,
"In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will only understand what we are taught" (Baba Dioum).

Remixed by Jocelyn

Original Image Citation: The Oprah Magazine, March, 2013.

The Natural vs Unnatural World

Playing with the ideology derived from the artist, Barry Underwood, I chose to adapt his original image into my own interpretation of my relationships between the natural and the unnatural world. Barry states,"The landscape has been and continues to be altered by ambitious human activities linked to political, social, economic, climactic and aesthetic forces." His interest in the connections between land use and the interpretation of a landscape as a political symbolic environment is what inspired me to recreate my own ideas on environment and conflicts between the natural and the unnatural world. 

Remixed by: Nicole Burnor  

Original image citation: Barry Underwood, Juxtapoz Magazine February 16, 2017

Mankind's Thumbprint

For my remix media project, an image captured me from outside magazine of a man descending into a cave. The ripples in the water created by the dangling rope resembled a human thumbprint. I love noticing things or instances that remind you of something else. I chose to mimic the appearance of the ripples as actual thumbprints on a make-believe workspace with a tea-pot and a food bowl. Hopefully the viewer's eye sees the correlation between the thumbprint and the ripples. The original picture was transformed from an educational photograph into a quirky remix project. I focused heavily on composition for this piece. 

Remixed by Roy Gabrielson

Original image citation: 

Symbiosis

Original

The original image I chose is of a tiered landscape in Geece. I was drawn to it because it is an example of how humans shape the land they inhabit, but the impact, in this case, doesn't seem to be to the detriment of the environment. It does, however, seem sort of abandoned - while the tiers were presumably created for farming olive trees, they look a little overgrown, and the walls worn down. It gives the impression that humans haven't engaged with the environment in years, despite having molded it themselves.

In my remix, I imagined that humans were again interacting on a daily basis with the land - living off of it without damaging it. The greenery flourishes, as do the people. I wanted to enhance the qualities of the original to demonstrate that not all human impact destroys the natural world.

Remix by Phoebe Tamminen

Original Image Citation: Photo: Avgerinos Nadis, "You Are Here" Magazine, pg. 15 (April, 2017)

Of Bones and Dirt Glowing Green

What struck me about the original image was the visual connection between bones and dirt in the Xeljanz ad's statement, "Hands are made for getting dirty, not RA (rheumatoid arthritis)." The x-rayed hand digging into the dirt brought to mind the magic and mortality in the juxtaposition of radiation's use in x-ray technology and radioactive contaminants in the soil of places affected by nuclear disaster and atomic warfare. Though used in medical practice to make the unseen, inner structure of the human skeleton visible, radiation itself cannot be seen by the human eye except under UV light (or audibly by use of a Geiger  Counter) and marked by that quintessential glow-in-the-dark green luminescence. One of the most striking things about the dynamic this image brings to mind is that the effects of radiation in our bodies through ingestion - a connection made apparent here through the visualization of a person gardening - most often shows in bone and joint deterioration. In the transformation of this image, therefore, my goal was to make the invisible visible in this interplay of bones, soil, and radioactivity. I chose to use a mix of green papers in a rhythm of organic lines moving toward the bulb being planted, or the vegetable being pulled from the dirt, and up into the cut-out bones of the hand and arm of the faceless gardener. The image becomes a living memento mori, glowing in radioactive green. 

Transformed Image: Of Bones and Dirt Glowing Green, Amanda Miller. Collage. 

Original Image citation: Xeljanz advertisement in Real Simple magazine, October 2016

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We are so immune to the effects we have on the environment, seeing wildlife in man-made surroundings seems natural to us.  But what if the tables were turned?  What if we had to live in the dumps we make?  Nature has no voice to argue for itself.  The storks in the original photo are eating form the dump rather than their natural wetland environment.  Perhaps the dump replaced the wetlands or it was filled in for construction development.  They have no choice but to eat here.  What if humans had no choice?  I imagine the storks telling the humans where to live and how to eat. After decades of living off the dumps, the storks revolt, take back their wetland and force the humans to live in the mess they perpetuate through consumer ambivalence.

Remixed by Rebecca Cote 

Original Image Citation: Doest, Jasper.  European White Storks.  Smithsonian, Jan/Feb 2016.  P. 68