Ian MacLellan

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The purpose of this project would be to expose the many faces and ideas behind the modern “extremist” environmentalist movement. As environmental threats become more real and graver both across The World and in the United States, a growing force is organizing and trying to fight back against the big businesses and governments of the world. Ever since Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring in 1962 the environmental movement has been growing in America. My grant proposal is to photograph the different arteries of this movement, from the national organizations, to self-sustained communes, and extreme bike culture and gangs. I also plan on visiting sites of environmental disaster that have inspired this movement to fight back.

I plan on visiting the most extreme environmental groups such as the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), Rising Tide, and Earth First!, which are oftentimes labeled as eco-terrorist organizations. I plan on photographing the activities of these groups to thwart loggers in activities such as tree sits and embedding metal spikes in trees. The ELF has been held accountable for much large arson including the 1998 Vail resort fires and 2008 Street of Dreams fire, and has members in jail. I would also like to visit the sites of these attacks and document the change. I would like to photograph the jailed members as part of the project and take portraits of other integral members of the organization, while masking both their names and faces. I plan on continuing my documentation of the protests and rallies of other environmental groups.

This project could also explore the resurgence of sustainable communes in America. I would try and visit some of the more than 50 eco-villages across America, where people live of the land, trying to fight against the modern consumer culture. With this part of the project I would like to document the activities involved with making these communes environmental such as mud brick houses, organic farming, and renewable power generations. I would also like to take portraits to try and expose the nature of the Americans who choose to live in these sorts of settings.

Another integral part of the modern extreme environmentalist movement is bike culture and bike gangs. This could involve photographing the housing situations that keep them out of the way of modern society and the very public activities that they undertake such as large scale Critical Mass rides in New York City. This would be a good opportunity to show the immense size of the modern environmental movement. Other opportunities that could be explored are the modern bike gang/communes that have started to pop up in cities such as Minneapolis and New York.

The final part of the project would be to photograph some of the environmental disasters that have caused this extremist backlash. A few possible ideas to explore would be sites of old environmental disaster like strip mining and oil spills as well as current growing environmental disasters like smog clouds over L.A. and the growing trash island in the Pacific.