"MSU alum start first climate-crisis photo journal"
Three recent graduates from the MSU photo program noticed a glaring gap in the photo-journal world. While there has been coverage of climate change and its effects, there was no publication devoted to the climate crisis; that is, until now.
Soon, the world will be introduced to Flare, the first photography journal dedicated to the climate crisis.
Executive director Amelia Digiano explained why they felt Flare was so important to start.
“There’s no publication that shows how ongoing and urgent the climate crisis is, or what the effects of climate change are. I think the fact that Flare is recursive is basically a reflection of the climate crisis itself, like this is going to continue to happen, and it’s going to continue to get worse. And so, we want a publication that is showing this constant these constant consequences because they’re not going away,” she said.
Even though their first edition isn’t scheduled until spring of 2026, their impact and network is already incredibly wide-reaching, as outlined by operations director Talon Belski.
“We have had artists from, honestly, all over the US for sure, from schools all over,” he said, “We communicated with some schools and had our call shared to their perks photo programs, which was super, super exciting for us. But we have a photographer for sure I know from France and a few I think from Asia and I believe Central America.”
Given the wide reach of the art and the subject matter, Creative Advisor Alec Thompson emphasizes the importance of maintaining Flare’s accessibility.
“This is a crisis that affects everyone. It like it jumps economic statuses, it jumps social classes, it’s something that we’re all in together so we really wanted to make sure that this was accessible for everyone,” Thompson said.
Speaking with Flare’s leadership, it’s clear that the passion for both the issues and the photography is undeniable.
“The idea of this being photography journal first and our press we’re trying to focus on the art side of this photography because we feel that photography is a whole but specifically strongly composed artistic photos can really have an ability to not only alter your views but cause honestly an upwelling of emotions for the subjects and subject matter of these images,” said Belski.
Recent policy developments have only reaffirmed their commitment to the importance of their work.
“Scientific evidence is one of the main tools we have to document climate change, and when that gets dismantled or defunded the way it is in the U.S. right now, we have to turn to art to document this crisis,” said Digiano.