Clean Air Fund & Climate Visuals launch library of air pollution photos

You don’t need to tell the editorial staff at Air Quality News that there is limited variety in available photography to illustrate stories concerning air pollution, but this seems set to change…

Recognising that air pollution is not particularly visual,  Clean Air Fund have partnered with Climate Visuals to offer a newly commissioned collection of over 200 images, which are freely available to groups aiming to affect change in this field.

image: Gulshan Khan / Climate Visuals

Climate Visuals launched in 2016 and have built up a collection of 1,400 images that have been used by over 8,000 NGOs, educators and  journalists. Some of these images were prominently displayed at COP27 in Egypt and COP26 in Glasgow.

Climate Visuals explain their reason: ‘All too often, climate change imagery is ineffective at driving change – it may be aesthetically pleasing and illustrative but not emotionally impactful.’

Clean Air Fund, who commissioned the photography explain the problem as they saw it: ‘As communications practitioners, journalists and campaigners know, sourcing high-quality photos that ethically depict real people and complex problems is a constant challenge. And every piece of content needs an image.

‘Commissioning photography is a costly and lengthy exercise for NGOs and civil society organisations, especially as we move toward more ethical and participatory practices. Media and voluntary organisations are often strapped for time and resort to using existing picture libraries or stock images to accompany their articles.’

Clean Air Fund commissioned the photographs in response to this shortage of accurate, striking and accessible photojournalism highlighting the impacts of air pollution alongside solutions to the problem. The photographs were taken in Indonesia, Poland, South Africa and the UK.

For this project, Climate Visuals worked with four photographers – Aji Styawan in Indonesia, Anna Liminowicz in Poland, Gulshan Khan in South Africa and Mary Turner in the UK – as well as individuals and community organisations in each location to develop stories and produce persuasive, detailed photojournalism.

Sign up to access the photographs here

Featured image on the main page: Anna Liminowicz / Climate Visuals