Before an enthusiastic audience of 470 NRDC supporters, Cameron screened excerpts of Avatar and then spoke with Elvis Mitchell, host of The Treatment on KCRW 89.9 FM, about the environmental message of his Oscar nominated, sci-fi blockbuster. Here’s coverage of the event by The New York Times.
Cameron said that Avatar, which has been attacked by right-wing commentators, was meant to grab audiences by the heart and motivate them to defend the natural world. Just as in Avatar, Cameron said, all of Earth’s creatures must work together to meet the challenges of global warming and ocean acidification.
After the interview, Cameron screened NRDC’s new This is Our Moment PSA with Leonardo DiCaprio and friends, www.thisisourmoment.org. It was the perfect way to end an inspiring evening all about taking a stand to defend our environment.
Suzy Amis Cameron, the filmmaker’s wife, is a member of NRDC’s L.A. Leadership Council, and worked with NRDC’s L.A. development team in make this terrific event happen.
Update: I've included a slideshow of more photos from the event.
Before we encased it in concrete, the Los Angeles River ran wild, and provided the city with most of its fresh water. But often, after heavy rain, the river jumped its banks, flooding neighborhoods, destroying bridges and buildings, occasionally drowning Angelenos. The “solution” was to pave it, and then, to forget about it.
We have ignored the Los Angeles River collectively in our urban planning, and (therefore) each of us does so in our daily lives. As a result, says Swope, the river has become “unincorporated, dormant and desolate.” Despite our neglect, he says, the river “creates its own grace through the landscape,” connecting disparate communities, linking the city’s present and past.
Swope’s images capture that grace in black and white without embellishment. He photographs the river, in the flat L.A. light, using a medium format camera, and choosing vantage points accessible to anyone. The large prints in this exhibition (42 x 50 inches and 30 x 67 inches) convey the scale of the landscape, and confront us with what we often drive past without seeing.
Whereas many photographers (from Julius Shulman to John Humble) “pinpoint” the L.A. River or its bridges, Swope steps back, framing the river within its environment. In some of his photographs the river is barely noticeable amidst the urban tumult. In others, the river shares the frame equally with the conduits of our industrial age: freeways, train tracks and high tension wires.
“Even though all of these things are going on,” Swope says, “not a person is there.”
Swope is fascinated that such deserted landscapes exist in the heart of a city populated by millions, and he is drawn to make photographs of them. He considers these images straight documentary photography – there is no attempt to glorify the river, or to advocate for its renewal – and yet most of the photographs in this exhibition intentionally omit obvious reference to the era in which they were made.
“That’s something I try to do,” Swope says, “so that you look at the landscape” instead of being distracted by signs of the time. This shifts the focus to what interests Swope: the haphazard growth of Los Angeles along the banks of its river.
In this city of random and disposable architecture, the river itself provides continuity; its old, beautiful bridges carry the past.
Swope’s photographs carry that past as well, and hint that something else lies dormant along these banks: the possibility that once again the L.A. River will be incorporated into the city through which it flows.
(Please note that 10% of the show’s sales will be donated to NRDC.)
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It's great that the film made an impression on him, and he's trying to raise awareness among his colleagues about the threat to marine life (and therefore people) of rising ocean acidity.
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