To the Children (2011-2017)

These images come from the finale of James Balog’s book, The Human Element (2021). They bring children together with the essential elements of air, ice, and water. In one image, his own daughter, Emily, holds a fragment of a retreating glacier in Iceland and confronts viewers with a gaze that serves as a symbolic reproach to all adults. We are complicit, her look seems to be saying: the children of today, as well as all the billions of people who follow us, will be forced to endure the environmental destruction we are causing.

The book concludes with a passionate call to arms:

"No law or decree, no religion or tradition, gives us the right to immolate the inheritance of the ages.

True patriotism protects spacious skies and purple mountains, golden valleys and diamond deserts, from pole to pole and sea to shining sea.

Against the tyranny of denial and the oppression of indifference we must prevail, and see anew the relationship between human nature and the rest of nature.

We the people have an inalienable right not just to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but to clean air, clean water, and the security of a stable atmosphere.

Our survival demands it.

Our children deserve it."