Epideictic Distance: The Complacent Publics of Environmental Rephotography

ABSTRACT

In this article, I argue that an epideictic approach to climate rephotography may produce what Jenny Rice has referred to as “exceptional” public subjectivities by encouraging audiences to further distance themselves from the complex political and rhetorical processes of climate inaction. To elucidate this claim, I conduct an analysis of two popular climate change documentaries that position rephotography as the lynchpin of rhetorically impactful climate advocacy (Chasing Ice and Chasing Coral). Both documentaries function as a form of epideictic in their own right by displaying exemplary moments of emotional conversion as the desired rhetorical outcome of a rephotographic encounter. I then turn to consider how epideictic rephotography potentially forecloses deliberative possibilities enabled through this mode of visual advocacy. I thus conclude by offering insight into how deliberative approaches to rephotography might be incorporated into rhetorical pedagogies.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• environmental advocacy
• epideictic rhetoric
• visual rhetorics

Acknowledgments

I thank the reviewers at RSQ for their constructive notes throughout the revision process. I also thank my colleagues Lisa Han and Peter Goggin for providing smart and supportive feedback early on. Last, many thanks to Madison Jones for reading through multiple drafts and providing insightful comments along the way.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.