Trinidad & Tobago photographers commemorate Earth Day 2020 with online challenge · Global Voices
Screenshot of an image by <PERSON>, submitted to the Photographers Guild of Trinidad & Tobago's Facebook page as part of its Earth Day challenge. All photos have been republished in this post with the permission of the Guild.
Earth Day, celebrated every April 22, looks very different this year from its previous incarnations. With the COVID-19 pandemic restricting movement and gatherings worldwide, this year's celebration has moved entirely online. 941
The event's website describes it as “far more than a day”:
It must be a historic moment when citizens of the world rise up in a united call for the creativity, innovation, ambition, and bravery that we need to meet our climate crisis and seize the enormous opportunities of a zero-carbon future.
The Trinidad and Tobago Photographers Guild is doing its part to heed the digital call to action, via an ongoing photo challenge that began nearly six weeks ago, around March 12, when Trinidad and Tobago recorded its index case of COVID-19.
Under the theme “(Stay) Focused”, the social media-based challenge invites photographers to share their work on the Guild's Facebook page. Thus far, topics have covered everything from fireworks to “macro” challenges to, well…Earth Day!
Guild President <PERSON> spoke with Global Voices by telephone and said that given the country's stay-at-home instructions, photographers are encouraged to take photos in their homes and gardens or dig into their archives for uplifting images:
We're trying to keep the topics upbeat in order to keep people focused, and steer everyone's mental state in a positive direction while practising social distancing. … This can be a depressing time for creatives. There is very little work and it's very restrictive.”
The response from photographers has been fantastic, and <PERSON> notices a lot of interaction, encouragement and growth among community members — not to mention the joy they are bringing to the wider public by sharing their amazing shots.
On this very special Earth Day, when our natural world is beginning to heal itself thanks to the massive drop in human activity, these photographs are a blissful reminder of our precious environment and the responsibility that rests on our collective shoulders, post-pandemic, to be good stewards.
Photographer <PERSON> posted a beautiful shot of mangroves, with the hashtag “#protection for our coastlines”:
#photoguildtt #earth#mangroves#protection for our coastlines
Geplaatst door <PERSON> op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
Mangroves are critical in shielding against coastal erosion and helping to protect small island developing states (SIDS) against the ill effects of climate change through its effective absorption of carbon dioxide.
There were several pics of birds, symbolic of new life and regeneration — including baby birds in a nest and one hummingbird feeding another, both by <PERSON>:
#earthday #photoguildtt
Geplaatst door Photographers Guild of Trinidad & Tobago op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
#earthday2020 #photoguildtt
Geplaatst door <PERSON> op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
There were a lot of pristine beach — and beach clean-up — scenes, which really spoke to the Caribbean spirit.
#EarthDay2020 #Photoguildtt#SocialMediaChallenge
Geplaatst door Photographers Guild of Trinidad & Tobago op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
#EarthDay2020 #Photoguildtt#SocialMediaChallenge
Geplaatst door Photographers Guild of Trinidad & Tobago op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
A Man-o-War adding a stinging beauty to the landscape of Manzanilla . 941