Exhibition
Tuesday, Apr 25, 2023, 6 PM

J Henry Fair

On the Edge. A Portrait of Our Coastlines

Exhibition, April 25 – Juli 1

Photographs from J Henry Fair, New York/Berlin

Opening: April 25, 6 PM

Art should foster dialog, ask the difficult questions.
The recent discovery of the impending collapse of the the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica reminds us that sudden catastrophe has struck civilization too often in history, always unexpectedly and with world-changing impacts. Pompeii, Katrina, Covid, all changed civilizations overnight, some local, some global.
And the list of catastrophic storms around the world and at home has become too long to compile.
Climate change is increasing storm activity and ocean rise, which will directly impact coastal areas. Natural shoreline features such as beaches, sand dunes, marshes and mangroves act as buffers to weather systems, pliably absorbing the impact of storms and high tides and thus protecting the hinterlands.
Coastal development usually replaces these features with man-made structures that fare less well in storms and require expensive repair.

There are essential dialogs about adaptation to this inevitable drastic change that our societies ignore and postpone at their peril. Art can address and initiate these dialogs in a world where debate has been polemicized.

J Henry Fair, born in Charleston, SC, USA, is a photographer and environmental activist, best known for his “chillingly beautiful” (Audubon Magazine) environmental aerial photos.
He holds a degree in journalism from Fordham University, and is widely published: from The New York Times, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, TIME, and New York, to Die Zeit, The Guardian, and Le Figaro, He has been featured on Television networks Arte, TTT, CBC News, and The Today Show,

Fair is the winner of the 2019 Environmental Photographer of the Year and the 2012 Earth Through A Lens Award and was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards.

Among the 3 solo books Mr. Fair has published, he is best known for his Industrial Scars series, about which, Roberta Smith, chief art critic of The NY Times said “The vivid color photographs of J Henry Fair lead an uneasy double life as potent records of environmental pollution and as ersatz evocations of abstract painting…information and form work together, to devastating effect.”