Christopher Davenport Pocket Knife Press/ The Earth Witness Society Stories of ecology, place, and people told through photographs, film, and the artist book. I am a visual and research artist utilizing film, photography, and the artist book as documents of ecology to influence public awareness of environmental issues, record and visualize ecological data, and provide evidence for conservation concerns, shape public policy, and affect cultural and social landscapes. My work as an artist also informs my academic research into the use and capabilities of film and photography in applied and human ecology as a PhD Candidate in IDS Art & Ecology at The University of Alabama. My current project, The Annotated Bibliography of Clear Cutting, is an ongoing, forest habitat focused, interdisciplinary ecological database of clear cutting and deforestation. This compilation of user submitted site photographs, GPS coordinates, satellite images, maps, and physical descriptions will be available to researchers as a searchable database to facilitate carbon projections, rates of deforestation, levels of mono-cultured areas, and landscape changes for given areas and regions. I have just returned from teaching artist books, paper, and printing at the Penland School of Craft this spring and will lead courses in Documentary Photography, Image and Identity, and Political Ecology, Environmental Justice, and the Photograph this Fall at The University of Alabama. I will also be teach drawing and design at The University of Alabama in Birmingham. I am also very proud to be joining the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Southern Exposure Environmental Film Project in selecting film sites and topics and performing outreach through public education and the screening of project films. My work has been cited at National and international Book Arts, Ecology, and Library and Information Science Conferences as examples of place-based representations of ecological, social, cultural issues and data. I have presented my photographs, artist books, films, and research at national and international conferences held, among others, at Yale University, The University of Utah, The University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, and The University of Alabama. My photographs, films, and artist books are in public and private collections in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. Christopher Davenport MFA in the Books Arts PhD Candidate: IDS Art & Ecology The University of Alabama artandecology@pocketknifepress.com
