Protecting Fragile Environments By Raising Awareness Through Dynamic Media.
Welcome to www.protectpublicwaters.org. Visit the companion site at: www.protectpubliclands.org.
Water is lifE.
It is one of the simplest statements you can make. A human being can’t survive for more than three days without potable water. The conflicts of the future will not be fought over oil, but water. Right now, draughts fuel geopolitical conflicts throughout the world. As resources become more scarce and water rights are more contested, the tempo of these conflicts will accelerate. On a local level, clean and safe drinking water is essential for any community to survive. Our waters are drowning in pollutants, plastics, and chemicals. Water is amazing in many ways. It is a universal solvent. Water is able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth. It’s also the reason that water can so easily be polluted. The toxic runoff from farms, factories, and towns makes its way into the lakes, rivers, and streams causing damage that tends to be very difficult to repair. Both groundwater and surface water are very easy to damage.
NONPOINT SOURCES VS. POINT SOURCES
Simply stated, a Nonpoint Source (NOS) is pollution from a diffuse source like land runoff and runoff, precipitation, atmospheric deposition, drainage, seepage, or hydrological modification (rainfall and snowmelt). Tracing the source of NPS is often impossible as pollutants are often transported long distances by both manmade and natural processes.
Point sources originate from a single, identifiable source, but may be no less difficult to combat. Point sources of pollution can be legal or illegal, intentional, or unintentional.
The more you know about the process of damaging our water, the more you can see it in seemingly ordinary daily talks, from doing laundry to taking a shower or applying salt ice melt to your driveway in the winter. As a single act, these may not seem significant but magnified millions of times it’s easy to see how the accumulated effects of human society are so destructive to our watersheds and sources.
What are Public Waters?
Public waters are owned by the public and managed by either local, state, or the federal government. Public lands and waters don’t just refer to our National Parks, our state and local parks are managed differently, but are still owned by the public to share and enjoy. Over the past few years, a small group of legislatures in coordination with private interests and corporations have made repeated attempts in various forms to hand over more and more of our public lands to private interests. These attacks on our public waters are an attack on the heritage of our republic. The protection of these national, state, and local treasures is a distinctly non-partisan issue. People of diverse political backgrounds who share a passion for outdoor recreation, the environment, and the desire to maintain our national heritage, can agree on an issue. You own over 600 million acres of public land and waters that are under constant attack by special interests seeking to weaken environmental regulation in the favor of energy development and deregulation in the name of economic growth. The recent roll-back of environmental regulations will have an impact on all of us as well as marginalized societies and the global environment.
Use the hashtag anytime you capture an image on public lands to raise awareness: #ProtectPublicWaters
100% of all proceeds (after production and shipping) are donated to land access, climate, and conservation organizations. Visit the companion site at www.protectpublicwaters.org.
The Tomhannock Reservoir Collection
The Grafton Lakes State Park Collection
The New York State Waterfall Collection
Conservation Photography
Conservation photography raises awareness through the production of dynamic media and images by exposing new audiences to the beauty and fragility of natural places and open spaces. Successful conservation photography leverages social media as a tool to show the world the places that are often too inaccessible or remote to access. In essence, it is the purpose of this website along with its companion www.protectpubliclands.org. The images contained in these galleries are a chronicle of the beauty of our public lands. Hopefully, they will inspire in you what they have inspired in me, a deep sense of responsibility to protect these places, to preserve open spaces, and maintain these fragile environments for future generations. 100% of print sales proceeds (after production costs) will be donated to worthy conservation and climate organizations with a proven track record of maximizing the use of their donations to make the greatest difference.
All images in these galleries have been captured on the public lands of New York State, New England, and the American West. All prints are sustainably sourced and printed with metallic pigments. Responsibly sourced reclaimed framing options are also available.
“Over the course of my career, as a professional photojournalist, water and ice have become my absolute favorite subjects to document. The way light plays off of surface water is hypnotic and changes mood with each passing weather front. Surface water absorbs the prevailing weather and creates art on a grand scale. Watery landscapes are constantly in flux and that’s what makes them so exciting to document.
Water’s winter form, ice is equally amazing. Growing up in New England, I am most comfortable in winter. The cold seems to be the natural state in this part of the world. As winter covers the landscape like a blanket, the ponds, lakes, and rivers of the region are transformed into magical solids. Photographs transform this solid into light that can be held and touched. I have captured water and ice from New England to Iceland. Each region has its own personality, each season brings. Documenting water and ice in all its forms has made me come to realize just how fragile our ecosystem is. Pollution and litter are everywhere I go, not far from every photograph I capture. Hopefully, these images will help raise awareness of not only the beauty of these out of the way places but also the fragility.”
GROUNDSWELL CONSERVATION:
Environmental MEdia with Impact.
CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHY IS THE MEETING OF ART AND SCIENCE.
We live in a society that runs on visuals. A person living today processes more information in a day than a person living in the middle ages processed in an entire lifetime. Millions of images compete for our attention. Media production doesn’t change the narrative, it sets the narrative. Now more than ever, compelling visuals and media need to be employed to raise awareness and document these fragile ecosystems that are vulnerable to development, destruction, and pollution. This project is the result of 20 years of environmental photography, documenting public lands across New York State, New England, and the American West. Once these lands, our lands, are gone, they are gone forever. These national, state, and local treasures exist for the good of all, not the profit of the few.
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100% of proceeds after production and shipping are donated to conservation organizations.
Dynamic media production is a powerful tool for change. It's imperative that open spaces and fragile environments be protected. Groundswell Conservation raises awareness and promotes advocacy through the documentation of the endangered ecosystems of New England and beyond. Powerful images and video are one of the most effective ways to raise awareness of the natural spaces that are in peril from both climate change and overdevelopment.
From the summits of the Adirondack Mountains to the watersheds of the Hudson River Valley to the coast of Southern New England, Groundswell Conservation produces dynamic media for environmental advocacy, open space preservation, and conservation organizations. Contact Groundswell Conservation if your environmental organization is in need of media to help spread its message to a wider audience. Pro bono work available for qualified organizations.
If your environmental or land access organization needs assistance in amplifying its message, please apply below.
Groundswell Conservation Pro Bono Assistance Application
John Bulmer is available for location photoshoots, photojournalism, and editorial work in both still photography and video. You can view all the latest images, projects, and events at: www.johnbulmerimages.com.
John is also a speaker, workshop director, researcher, presenter, and subject matter expert that has covered such topics as photography for conservation, weather, open space preservation, watershed protection and combining visual and written storytelling. Learn more about John's current documentary and commercial video projects and capabilities at www.noreasterfilms.com.
John Bulmer Photography is based in Saratoga, New York and specializes in commercial and editorial photography and video production. John Bulmer Photography thrives on creating memorable and effective content for large and logistically complex projects in challenging conditions. You can learn more at www.bulmerphotography.com.
For media inquiries, bookings, or to contact John directly, please visit www.bulmerphotography.com/contact
Past and Present Environmental Content Clients and Partners
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