Rural Ruins in America’s Climate Change Story: Photojournalism, Perception, and Agency in Shishmaref, Alaska

Abstract

This article provides a visual analysis of a set of peopleless photographs taken in 2006 of a falling home erosion in the village of Shishmaref, Alaska, that have been widely circulated in reporting about the relocation of the village due to climate change. It asks whether the visual contract between spectator and absent climate change victim extends beyond an empathetic response to action toward restoring the lost home. The article explores the relationship of contemporary scholarship on postmodern ruination in U.S. Rust Belt cities and the Shishmaref fallen home photograph as a means to analyze the work done by rural ruination.

本文对于一系列2006年在阿拉斯加一个名为希什马廖夫（Shishmaref）的部落所捕捉的衰败家园侵蚀之无人照片提供视觉分析，这些照片已在报导部落因气候变迁而进行的迁村中广泛流传。本文质问，旁观者与缺席的气候变迁受害者之间的视觉缔结，是否能让移情回应延伸至朝向恢復失去的家园之行动。本文探讨美国锈带城市的后现代衰落研究和希什马廖夫遗失的家园照片之间的关系，作为分析乡村衰落的后果之工具。

Este artículo suministra un análisis visual de un conjunto de fotografías sin personas de la erosión de una casa en colapso en la aldea de Shishmaref, Alaska, tomadas en 2006, que han sido ampliamente circuladas en el reporte de la relocalización de la aldea como consecuencia del cambio climático. Se pregunta si el contrato visual entre el espectador y la víctima ausente del cambio climático va más allá de una reacción empática por acción conducente a restaurar el hogar perdido. El artículo explora la relación de la erudición contemporánea sobre la ruina posmoderna de las ciudades del Cinturón del Orín de los EE.UU. con la fotografía de la casa derrumbada en Shishmaref, como un medio para analizar el trabajo hecho por la ruina rural.

Key Words:

• Alaska
• climate change
• media
• narratives
• visuals.

关键词:

• 阿拉斯加
• 气候变迁
• 媒体
• 叙事
• 视觉。

Palabras clave:

• Alaska
• cambio climático
• medios
• narrativas
• visuales

Notes

Notes

1 For a fuller understanding of Shishmaref, please see Marino’s (2015) Fierce Climate, Sacred Ground: An Ethnography of Climate Change in Shishmaref; Chapter 10 of Anthropology and Climate Chang: From Actions to Transformations, edited by Crate and Nuttall 2016; Living with the Coast of Alaska by Mason, Neal, Pilkey, and Bullock (1997); Geological and Anthropological Considerations in Relocating Shishmaref, Alaska by Mason et al. (1997) from the State of Alaska; and Tetra Tech (2004), “Shishmaref Partnership Shishmaref Relocation and Collocation Study, Preliminary Costs of Alternatives” (see https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/Portals/4/pub/USACE_relocation%20plan_shishmaref.pdf) .

2 Based on interviews conducted in September 2016.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Victoria Stephanie Herrmann

VICTORIA STEPHANIE HERRMANN, PhD, is the Managing Director of The Arctic Institute and a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 1ER, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include visual and media discourses of the Arctic and issues of coastal climate change adaptation policy.