Earth Week: Jason Lindsey: Cracks in the Ice

Earth Week: Jason Lindsey: Cracks in the Ice by Michael O. SnyderApril 21, 2022

©Jason Lindsey, Cracks in the Ice

This week we feature bodies of work are linked by this thematic lens: making the often-invisible nature of the global climate and the ecological crisis more visible using conceptual, lens-based art techniques. Each body of work speaks to a different aspect of the climate and ecological crisis: sea level rise; coral bleaching; habitat loss and environmental destruction; deforestation; melting glaciers; plastic pollution.

Jason Lindsey is an Artist specializing in interpreting science and the natural world with photography. His work focuses on protecting, sharing, and exploring our world. Jason’s photography is exhibited at ‘Remembering Water,’ an exhibit initiative by UNESCO-IHP, “The Flag Project’ at Rockefeller Center (in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program and the Climate Museum). Jason is the current Artist in Residence at Prairie Rivers Network, and his photo assignments have taken him from the jungles of the Amazon to the Glaciers of Iceland. Jason is a storyteller and uses his experience to create honest stories. Jason Lindsey is committed to supporting conservation organizations and causes that protect our land and water, he currently has photographs in a United Nations Climate Change and The Climate Museum exhibit in New York City and another United Nations exhibit about water in Paris.

Follow Jason Lindsay on Instagram: @jasonlindseyphoto

Lindsay shares his thinking on the health of the environment:

Each choice is a reminder of our ripple effect, an invitation to take full responsibility for our impact on the world. Our lives, our work, the health of our environment, and how we value it, all interdependent. And like those gritty and enterprising pioneers who came before me, I believe that no-one is too small to make a difference in the world. My son is living proof of this.

These deeply held ideals are the driving force behind why my wife and I fulfilled a long-held ambition to purchase 20-acres of forest at the mouth of Jordan Creek. Ultimately, we raised money through print sales and worked with a non-profit to get a grant for the land to be transferred to a land trust for permanent protection.

We also challenged ourselves to explore new ways to green our studio. We weatherized, insulated, overhauled and installed. We paired geothermal with a rooftop solar system and are now 100 percent powered by clean energy. Nothing was exempt from examination to make our workspace one that’s not only good for the health of everyone who works or visits but also good for the planet. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

At the heart of it, I want the work I create to be a reflection of all that I hold most dear – my wife and son, the environment, the caregivers. For this, I will continue to dig and search and leave no stone unturned; to do whatever it takes to tell the kinds of stories that bring people deeper into something that will move them and inspire action. This my on-going ode to great design, my way to make something memorable and meaningful.

©Jason Lindsey, Cracks in the Ice

Cracks in the Ice

As I look to the future, to the world that my son will inherit, and to the forest where I live that may soon be on fire, climate change and the immediate impact on the environment constantly weighs on my mind. To research this devastating phenomenon, I acquired a series of educational glass slides to examine and consider. Each revealed a vintage photograph of glaciers, now disappearing or already gone. I shattered the glass negatives to call attention to this loss and fragility of our planet, but also to echo an experience with my newborn son’s first four month’s stay in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care or his 20 surgeries and six years of 120-hour a week home nursing. Cracks in the Ice is a metaphor for the precariousness and vulnerability of those I love. It is also a way to speak to the profound loss from global warming and a planet under siege.

The “Cracks in the Ice” project was inspired by my 15-year-old son, Björn. During one of our many daily chats, he asked about Climate Change and what the world will look like in the future. I realized I had only murky visions of that future myself and could not give him a clear answer. His precarious start to life and surgeries makes him crave stability. As a father, I hated that I could not provide much clarity for Björn and knew I needed to explore this idea with a photography project. “Cracks in the Ice” was born. – Jason Lindsey, Father, and Photographer

©Jason Lindsey, Cracks in the Ice

©Jason Lindsey, Cracks in the Ice

Lindsey shares more about his commitment to the environment:

My wife, Anna, and I purchased a forest at the mouth of Jordan Creek in Vermilion County, Illinois. We are working with The Land Conservation Foundation to protect this property forever in a land trust. We raised money by selling fine art prints of Jordan Creek and the Salt Fork River. The Clean Energy Community Foundation awarded The Land Conservation Foundation a grant to cover 80% of the costs.

I served on the board of directors for Prairie Rivers Network for ten years and served on several other Not for Profit boards before that. I have worked with The Nature Conservancy, National Geographic, The Sierra Club, and many other not-for-profit organizations. I am always looking for opportunities to partner with conservation organizations. The Governor of Illinois signed a nation-leading equitable climate bill in 2021. The Illinois Solar Energy Association saw my Solar Heroes project and asked if I could create one for them to help pass this new Legislation. I said: “OF COURSE”! I am happy to have been a tiny part of it by creating and shooting this campaign. Hit us up, and let’s make a difference.

Our company is committed to a sustainable photo studio that is 100% solar-powered. We have a 19kW system on the roof of our studio, and we added 6kW more at a local community solar farm in 2021.

Michael O. Snyder is a photographer and filmmaker who uses his combined knowledge of visual storytelling and conservation to create narratives that drive social impact. Through his production company, Interdependent Pictures, he has directed films in the Arctic, the Amazon, the Himalaya, and East Africa. His photojournalism work has been featured by outlets such as National Geographic, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. He is a Portrait of Humanity Award Winner, a Society of Environmental Journalists Member, a Pulitzer Center Grantee, and a recent delegate to the United National Climate Conference. He holds an MSc in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and a BSc from Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. He lives in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Central Virginia.

Follow Michael O. Snyder on Instagram: @michaelosnyder

Tags: Climate Change, Environment, Ice, Jason Lindsey, Michael Snyder, Typology