NEW YORK; FEBRUARY 15 — Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of the Center for U.S.-China Relations, strolls through Asia Society’s sunlit Leo Café, where the walls are now covered by photos of the Himalayas by Jimmy Chin and David Breashears. Their work is part of COAL + ICE, an immersive photography and video exhibition which opened on February 13 at Asia Society in New York. The exhibition brings together the work of over 30 photographers and video artists from around the world to visualize the consequences of the climate crisis and foreground creative solutions. 

“COAL + ICE was born about 20 years ago when I went up with my family, who were at school in Beijing, to Datong [in Shanxi Province]. We thought we were going to see the Buddhist Grottoes [at Yungang], instead we saw coal country,” says Schell. “Coal country in China is pretty staggeringly dirty, depressing, but it is the heart and soul of everything that has fueled China’s economic revival. From that moment on, I realized that coal was a critical element in the whole climate proposition.” 

Song Chao is a photographer from Shandong, China whose works have been featured in COAL + ICE since 2011. He spent over a decade working in a coal mine and photographing his fellow miners as they worked alongside each other. According to Song, “participating in COAL + ICE made me profoundly aware of the impact coal mining has on our environment, atmosphere, and surroundings.”.

In 2011, COAL + ICE premiered in Beijing, featuring the works of over 30 contributors. The New Yorker wrote on the exhibition’s debut: “It seeks to do something unprecedented: to chart the horrific grandeur of our effects on the planet, from the coal mines beneath our feet to the dwindling glaciers on our highest mountains.” COAL + ICE has since been shown in Yixian, Shanghai, Paris, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.

Some of the exhibition’s featured photographers flew to New York to take part in COAL + ICE’s opening. Among them was Gideon Mendel, who has documented the impacts of climate change in over 13 countries. His featured photographs and videos — which have been a part of COAL + ICE since its San Francisco run — are all portraits of flood survivors. Mendel noted that his photos are taken through a process of “collaborative engagement” with his subjects, where he goes into homes and communities to witness and showcase the toll climate change-induced flooding can take. 

“On one level [COAL + ICE] is a beautifully curated selection of images and video, but on another it is just an amazing group of photographers that I am proud to be a part of,” said Mendel. “I really believe we all share a common vision of the future, though we have very different ways of showcasing our work. The final iteration, where it all comes together, takes viewers on a very special pathway.”

Photographer Nichole Sobecki’s work “Where Land Was” documents the interaction between security and climate change in Somalia, where empty nets have forced fishermen into piracy and farmers facing droughts have been pulled to extremist groups. Some of the most dramatic impacts of the climate crisis are playing out in Somalia, threatening the livelihoods of many Somali people. 

"One of the things that’s really important for people to walk away from the show with is to understand that [Somalia] is a community that has contributed almost nothing to the crisis that we are in,” said Sobecki. “When we think about how interconnected our planet is, I want people to remember that and also to remember that the changes in Somalia may feel very far away but actually are far closer than we realize. What we see there now is growing and evolving across our planet.”

Alongside photographic and video displays, COAL + ICE features an AI-based installation by Jake Barton, who worked on the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, called The Accelerator 2050. The piece allows visitors to “talk” to their future selves, envision the implications of their everyday actions on the environment, and come up with concrete ways to enact change. 

“I think we want viewers who see this show and the programming that we are going to do over the next six months to wake up and recognize this is an incredible challenge and threat to our planet. But we also want them to be inspired in some ways — not so depressed and discouraged that they can’t do anything,” said Orville Schell.

COAL + ICE’s joint focus on challenges and possible solutions is one of the things that excites photographer Jamey Stillings the most about the exhibition. Stillings’ aerial photographs of renewable energy are inspired by a desire to empower climate action. “They say that 90 percent of climate photography is focused on the problem, which is why I’ve chosen to focus on solutions or our attempts to find solutions,” said Stillings. “My goal with my work looking at renewable energy is to give people a sense of hope, to give people a sense of imagination at what’s possible as we move forward.”

COAL + ICE is on view at Asia Society New York through August 11, 2024. Plan your visit here.