For decades, the conversation around climate change has largely belonged to scientists, policymakers and activists. On June 13th at the North Fork Arts Center, two Yale School of Music composers and some of the world’s most gifted environmental photographers will try a different approach.
Instead of charts, data and political debate, audiences will encounter music, imagery and emotion.
“When the Earth Speaks” is a strikingly original, multimedia world premiere that pairs original compositions by Yale School of Music composers Forrest Eimold and Jaebong Rho with sweeping visual projections drawn from the BarTur Photo Award archive, creating an immersive experience that organizers hope will inspire reflection on a rapidly changing planet.
The performance will transform NFAC’s theater into a floor-to-ceiling cinematic landscape of stunning environmental imagery gathered from photographers around the globe. Through it all, a live performance by the VISTA Quartet will provide the soundtrack.
‘Artists in society’
The project began with a simple but ambitious question, according to José García-León, the Henry and Lucy Moses Dean of Music at Yale University: What role should artists play in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges?
“This started with the idea of getting composers at the School of Music at Yale thinking about environmental issues and social responsibility,” García-León said. “I’ve been trying really hard at the school to talk to students about the role they have as artists in society and how to be involved in different ways.”
‘Humans are very creative, and we can do a lot of things that will save us from ourselves’
Amnon Bar-Tur
The project was proposed less than a year ago by Yale School of Music Board of Advisors member Eugene Pinover, who envisioned a collaboration between Yale’s composers and the internationally-recognized BarTur Photo Award.
What followed, García-León said, was an unusually rapid creative process fueled by enthusiasm from everyone involved.
“Everyone has been so eager to make it work and make it happen,” he said.
Rather than selecting composers based on completed works, Yale organized a competition.
“We didn’t ask them to provide music,” García-León said. “We asked them to submit a proposal of why they would have something to say on this topic and how they would do that.”
Once selected, the composers were given access to a portfolio of photographs from the BarTur archive. The goal was to create a symbiosis between music and visual art, instead of forcing one to serve the other.
“It was important that it would be, as much as possible, a collaboration,” García-León said.
‘Dramatic’ imagery
That concept struck a chord with Amnon Bar-Tur, co-founder of the BarTur Photo Award, whose organization has spent years collecting powerful visual stories from photographers documenting environmental change and other urgent challenges around the world.
Bar-Tur said that when his friend Pinover approached him with the concept, it was an easy embrace.
“I love the idea of combining the music and visual,” he said. “Music is very abstract, and to imagine what climate change really is … looking at it now — as I’ve seen the [final cut] — it’s really powerful. It really delivers the message.”
The images selected for the project represent some of the most celebrated environmental photography collected through the award program over the years, he said.
“We chose what we think are the most powerful images that we have.”
Among them is a haunting image that Bar-Tur said has stayed with him for years (pictured above): an elderly woman, dressed in black, standing on a Greek island engulfed by wildfire, watching helplessly as flames consume the landscape around her.
“It was the cover of The Guardian newspaper in England,” he said. “Very, very dramatic picture. I think it’s a very moving picture.”
Bar-Tur acknowledged that one of the challenges in curating environmental photography is avoiding overwhelming audiences with despair. Climate change is often presented as an unstoppable force, leaving viewers feeling powerless in the face of melting ice caps, rising seas and increasingly frequent natural disasters.
He said that’s not the message that the project conveys.
“I think we cannot take the position that in the end, ‘everything will be terrible and we have no control. Humans are very creative, and we can do a lot of things that will save us from ourselves.”
Bar-Tur said that philosophy has guided the BarTur Photo Award since its founding. While climate change has remained a recurring theme, the competition has also tackled a wide range of social issues through documentary photography, often funding ambitious, long-term projects.
One recent winner, Bar-Tur noted, spent years documenting the U.S.-Mexico border, traveling thousands of miles on both sides of the divide and capturing the landscape from drones, airplanes and helicopters. The resulting work earned a $30,000 grant and is now being developed into a traveling exhibition.
Bar-Tur said that projects like that – and now “When the Earth Speaks” — are about creating what he calls “intellectual interaction,” giving audiences an opportunity to both observe the world and engage with it.
In interviews, organizers emphasize that the project is not intended to be an unrelenting parade of environmental catastrophe. Alongside images of destruction are photographs depicting resilience, adaptation and the human struggle to endure.
“A lot of what you see here is really capturing people through their challenges,” Bar-Tur said.
‘A moment of reflection’
That balance between warning and hope is central to the project’s message, García-León said.
“We’re not replacing the scientists and the experts. We’re just providing our own view on how we’re reacting to what we can see around us in the news and in the world.
“There is also a small element of hope in our message,” he said. “Part of the message we’re trying to accomplish is bring light to this, but also encourage people to have an optimistic view on how we can get to a place where things could potentially be better.”
For North Fork audiences, the event carries an added distinction.
Although the project will later be presented at Yale and featured during Yale Climate Week in New York in conjunction with United Nations-related programming, its first public performance will take place at NFAC.
“It is an honor, and so exciting, that the world premiere of this multimedia experience is happening in Greenport,” NFAC’s new executive director, Alison Omens, told the Sun Thursday night. “I think it speaks to the importance of the maritime community, the changing climate, and how art and community come together in Greenport.
“It speaks to the kinds of people and experiences that we can bring here, and we’re just so thrilled that they’re choosing to premiere their work here,” she said. “It’s a real testament to how art can be both a celebration and a catalyst for change and awareness.”
After the performance, visitors will have the opportunity to hear from the composers and videographer Josiah Spencer during a panel discussion and view a curated exhibition of printed photographs featured in the presentation.
Ultimately, García-León, Bar-Tur and Omens hope audiences leave with something more lasting than a memory of a concert or photography exhibition.
“I’m hoping that it will make them think about what’s happening in the world,” García-León said. “Hopefully they’ll have a moment of reflection inspired by the art they’re going to experience.”
Tickets to the event are available on the North Fork Arts Center’s website.