John Novis - Greenpeace 'Photo Activism'

Exclusive interview Greenpeace Director Of Photography (1995-2015) 

​The pristine forest area is under threat from multinational development to degrade and drain the land for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations. (John Novis, Greenpeace)

​The Real Price of Palm Oil

Clearing last remaining intact area of peat swamp forest by fire in Riau, Sumatra. The pristine forest area is under threat from multinational development to degrade and drain the land for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations. Peatland forest is critical for maintaining biodiversity and it's degradation releases vast stores of carbon thereby contributing to global climate change.

The rapid conversion of forests and peatlands for oil palm and pulp plantations, and logging, is a major driver of deforestation in Indonesia. The carbon released by these activities make Indonesia the third largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet. The majority of Indonesia's palm oil exports are destined for China, Europe and India. Greenpeace states that it is crucial that Indonesia's forests are protected from the rampant expansion of the palm oil and pulp industries in order to combat climate change, stop biodiversity loss and protect the livelihoods of forest-dependent peoples. Greenpeace is calling on the Indonesian government to implement an immediate moratorium on all forest conversion, including expansion of oil palm plantations, industrial logging, and other drivers of deforestation.

Greenpeace action against multinational companies exporting palm oil world-wide for use in consumables and cosmetics. Greenpeace is calling for the Indonesian Government to implement a moratorium on deforestation. (John Novis, Greenpeace) 

​John Novis Interview
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I began my career in photography in June 1966 at the age of 16. I joined a large commercial studio based off Fleet Street, London EC1, as a studio assistant where I learnt large format photography, tungsten and flash lighting, studio set design etc. The high-end photography knowledge and experience I gained from these early years set the foundation of my photographic career throughout my life. After working through almost all aspects commercial photography; fashion, food, portrait, film processing, printing etc. I attended a ‘creative photography’ university course which changed the direction of my career. Shifting from commercial I was awakened to journalism, photography as art, history and culture. What followed was a job offer from Greenpeace Media in 1998 which later lead to me becoming Head of Photography for Greenpeace International. The type of imagery Greenpeace commissioned was mix a of journalistic style with commercial branding. My university studies and commercial background gave strong grounding to make the Greenpeace Picture Desk a success and come up with a new genre, ‘photo activism’. The objective was to produce photography that would inspire concerned people to act on critical environmental and human matters.
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Climate Change Education 
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One of the great challenges in educating people about climate change is photographing a phenomenon in a transient state and not a fixed event. We must accept, without images climate change communication would be a series of talking heads, scientific reports, data, graphs data etc. Pictures of hurricane devastation, wildfires, forest destruction, flooding, drought, extreme weather, climate refugees etc. cannot in themselves be wholly contributed to climate change because these events occur naturally but images makes the argument dynamic and compelling . However, these images can be shown, not as evidence but as an illustration of what climate change will look like more and more frequently as it intensifies. Indeed, beautiful images in contrast to devastation are a powerful educator too, such as glaciers, arctic landscape, animal species like the polar bear, coastal areas, coral reefs can be predicted to be lost in a few decades unless climate change is brought under control. Another role of photography and video are stories of activism. People taking action, breaking the law in protest. Peaceful protests against coal plants, oil pipelines, fracking especially with local people makes for compelling news. Images of alternative solutions such as wind farm production, solar farms create a sense of future and establish questions over climate denial. Over the last 10 to 15 years as these global climate related images have begun to penetrate media, web, social media etc. climate change has entered the human consciousness. Man-made climate change is now widely accepted world-wide as manifested, for example in the Paris-Climate Accord and the many huge renewable energy projects currently in progress. 

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A Jaguar looks into John's camera in the Amazon rainforest. (John Novis, Greenpeace) 

Advice for photographers/campaigners 

First don’t expect to be paid much for your stories. Environment and ethics doesn’t sell like celebrities, scandal and sport. Most of the photographers I know that get the most interesting stories and get commissioned regularly are the ones aligned to NGO’s. My advice would be to make two or three interesting local/national stories on how people are coping with environmental injustice or natural problems, fracking, extreme flooding, industrial pollution etc. are examples. Stories about people affected are important, not just a series of unhappy landscapes. Make sure your story information, captions are in-depth and factually accurate and if you can produce small video version more’s the better. Then present your work to the NGO production teams and don’t take no for an answer keep pestering them. I had a young photographer once when I was Head of Photography for Greenpeace who wanted freelance work from the organization. I told him to go away and get more stories and a name for himself. But he kept pestering me till I eventually gave him a small local commission. He now works consistently with WWF, Action Aid, Greenpeace, Red Cross etc. and regularly gets photo spreads in the Guardian.   
 

Ndomon Albert, 21, Farmer working in a cocoa farm in the village of Esam, Molongo. As industrial agricultural techniques spread into Africa, and especially into forests of the Congo Basin, Greenpeace identifies farming alternatives that can both benefit farmers, consumers and to the protection of natural resources. (John Novis, Greenpeace)

The Future
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I am an optimist at heart and I believe photography is playing an important role informing and forcing people and governments to act to halt the progress of climate change and other environmental injustices. I see a change already happening now but we still have a long way to go. Photography has undergone huge changes in the last few years especially with rise of social media, the smart phone and globalisation. This has changed the profession dramatically. Everybody’s a photographer now! As medias merge, citizen journalism has emerged and gained a place in the way news is reported and although the source can sometimes be questioned we now receive many images and stories breaking outside the ‘official’ news agency sphere. As climate change intensifies we can expect to witness events reinforcing the problem as it unfolds.

​Glaciers in Retreat at Glaciers in Retreat at Mount Everest Everest

​Greenpeace China activist Zhong Yu shows a photo of the Middle Rongbuk Glacier taken in 1968 to the camera to illustrate the 2km retreat and deterioration of the glacier in just under 40 years. (John Novis, Greenpeace)

​A Greenpeace investigation team at Mount Everest bear witness to melting glaciers which are most probably caused by climate change. The Rongbuk Glaciers are one of the prime sources of water feeding into the major rivers of China and India. Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world as a result of global warming. Two years later I travelled to the base camp (China side of Mount Everest) to a make a comparison photo of the Rongbuk glacier to show how over 40 years the glacier had retreated 2 kms by juxtaposing a China scientific photo from 1968 with my photo from the expedition taken in 2007 from the same viewpoint as the 1968 picture. 

The Greenpeace team hold signs saying "Protect Our Water Source Stop Global Warming!" in a climate change campaign to protect the glaciers in the Himalayas are they are receding faster than any others in the world. (John Novis, Greenpeace) 

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As individuals and collectively we need to work on protecting these magnificent animals, alongside all wildlife to sustain a future for all of us. Thank you for reading. You can find out more about Greenpeace here:
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