Urbanautica

EXTINCTION. A POSSIBLE CATALOG

by Ugo Leone

«The confinement of hundreds of thousands of people in the home for months has allowed the environment to regenerate in all its main components: air, water, soil. And this is what would happen on Earth following the eventual disappearance of humanity: the evolutionary recovery.»

The risk of mass extinction (the sixth) feared by many scholars of the phenomenon of progressive climate change due to the breakdown of the equilibrium established on Earth for 12,000 years now, has fueled many reflections. I also "experimented" with it, but I never thought that photography could make it an object of investigation. Of course, we cannot find photos of previous extinctions, the closest of which (the 5th) dates back to 65 million years ago. A time that excludes not only the camera, but also those who, long after, would have invented and used it: humans. So from the past, we have signs, many signs, but not photos.

© Adam Reynold from the series 'No Lone Zone'

© Shanna Merola from the series 'We All Live Downwind'

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series 'The Other Red Desert. A place of Microworlds'

And on the hypothetical 6th one? We have hypotheses. However, contrary to the previous one, we can also have photos of these hypotheses that imagine the future. About what could happen on Earth after the extinction of mankind, what ethologists call "an evolutionary recovery", we have images "granted" by the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, the confinement of hundreds of thousands of people in the home for months has allowed the environment to regenerate in all its main components: air, water, soil. And this is what would happen on Earth following the eventual disappearance of humanity: the evolutionary recovery, in fact.

© Catalog 'Extinction. The World Without Us'. Urbanautica Institute, 2020

Therefore, a nice volume of photos comes right by the way to fill a void. The title "Extinction" as much as the subtitle "the world without us" well address the main topic. It is published by Urbanautica an independent body based on the voluntary support of partnerships and followers. And judging from this work, it does it very well. Its curator is Steve Bisson who, with the anguish that the fact deserves, tells us that while he was thinking of the right words to introduce the catalog of standpoints and visual incursions on the issue of extinction «Australia is on fire. The images of burnt skies, of inhabitants fleeing their homes, of charred animals and other apocalyptic scenes fill our eyes. The general reaction is one of despair, indignation, and protest together. However, in the undergrowth of our thoughts, there is a sense of helplessness that reminds us that we are only spectators of history».

© Michele Vittori from the series 'Walking'

We are passive spectators of dramatic events of which not a few other human beings have been active protagonists. Yet it seems to me that the thread that links the photos of the volume can already be seen in what sounds like an apparent interpretation of what is happening and what is feared may happen. That is, in the thought of Günther Anders placed on the first page: "Prometheus's triumph has been all too overwhelming". It makes me think of the dialogue between Vania and Edward, the fruit of the beautiful imagination of the writer, Roy Lewis author of The Evolution Man (1960). Edward was preparing to tame the fire and Vanya scornfully looking down from an arboreal perch and arguing with his brother about what could have happened, commented: «[...] my most earnest advice to you is not to keep it going any longer, before you get a chain reaction started.»

© Catalog 'Extinction. The World Without Us'. Urbanautica Institute, 2020

Even Pope Francis, worried about what could happen if we don't give ourselves a regulation, last November 2019 speaking to the young participants in the international meeting "Children’s Global Summit", he hoped for the transition from I can to We can together so as not to fall in the risk of behaving like Prometheus. Bisson, recalling the quote from Günther Anders, adds that the introductory quote «leads us to consider the gravity of the human situation at a time when our blatant subordination to progress makes is increasingly consciously felt». Bisson Leaves little or no room for hope for a better future, or rather a future without adjectives. His vision is that of a tomorrow in which it is «as if the human race was left with nothing but chasing the consequences of its actions.» Actions and remedies that appear "increasingly pitiful and clumsy" attempts. It is in this climate of uncertainty and unease that the threat of extinction arises and it «does not concern the species but the residue of humanity». It is very hard, but, alas! this remark is not unfounded. With the addition that I believe necessary. That is, in this vision, extinction is not linked to the results of the climate change that has been going on for years, but is seen as the result of displaced human actions: «to rush hour traffic, to speed at any cost, to the dust of factories and to the chasm of mines, to urban alienation and real estate bulimia [...], and so on. Quite bluntly, speaks Bisson.

Thomas Gauthier is the first showcased series. And it starts from a title that is also a whole program: "Only the stars will remain". The thought immediately goes to Archibald Joseph Cronin and his famous The Stars Look Down (1935), asking us to look at what? And Who?. Leafing through the volume (30 photographers, 220 photos if I counted well) answers are found. I said that there are 200 photos, well, only 16 humans appear (the survivors?); many photos represent only hands. Many photos (all beautiful, well made and representative of the authors' thoughts) that largely provide images of concern. However, there is also an "infiltrator", Sara Nicomedi, which gives an apparent counter-trend to her work: "Extinction is not a good title". And she ends her statement with a question that seems to me to also be an invitation to hope: «can we transform the current climate and social crisis into something useful to the restoration of empathy among human beings and hence allow ourselves to evolve on a spiritual and emotional level?

Over hundreds of pictures from thirty photographers who help us to get a visual background of the problem. These photos must be seen; they cannot be told. The volume can also be found on the Urbanautica website, where is this invitation to: "Support Urbanautica. Make a contribution! We need your ongoing support to keep working as we do, to boost our editorial independence. Every reader's contribution, big or small, is valuable support and it only takes a minute. Thank you! If you want to spend some money for a coffee — make it here".

I took that coffee very willingly.

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LINKS
Result of the call 'Extinction. The World Without Us'
Foreward by Steve Bisson (curator) on the catalog

BOOK
Catalog 'Extinction. The World Without Us', 2020 Urbanautica Institute

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