2021 Online Visual Presentation – Environment

Nat Geo photographer David Guttenfelder and writer Craig Welch took a cross-country trip in electric cars to explore ideas for a sustainable future.

As spring, 2020 arrived amid the coronavirus pandemic, we found ourselves inside, hunkered down. Our pace of life slowed as nature sped ahead. Michigan bloomed as COVID-19 took its toll. Time and space took on new meaning for each of us uniquely. This project, a collaboration between the Detroit Free Press and Kresge Arts in Detroit, is intended to reflect that dichotomy. Free Press photographer Brian Kaufman made photographs that provided inspiration for Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients to respond in poetry. Conceptually, the photographer created images that literally blurred, warped and fragmented the reality of a visual landscape, but these images were executed within the parameters of single-frame photographs. Additionally, Kaufman teamed up with Kresge Artist Fellow Aiko Fukuchi to record the reading of her poem Ganbatte, which became the narrative base for the video component of the project.