Images as ambassadors - the project

The universe with its galaxies was created many billions of years ago – an inconceivably big time span. Embedded in it somewhere: Earth, Gaia, Terra, there are many names for our home planet. On it, life arose, leading to the development of humans as the crown of creation. They learned to walk upright, speak and think "logically". And above all, they learned to feel. Happiness, joy, love, gratitude. But also fear, panic, and the desire for security.

Ever since the first humans flew into space and "sent down" photos of the earth, it has been proven: on this beautiful planet, this blue jewel in the blackness of space, there are no borders, it is borderless.

AS08-14-2383 Apollo 8, Dez. 1968 – The rising Earth ©NASA

But we established borders

Especially in people’s minds, which is how we ended up with two terrible world wars in the 20th century. All our inventive genius led to the release of atomic energy at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a whole new level of destructive power. And the merciless destruction that happened in these two wars led to the founding of the UN. For if a single human being can wipe out life on the earth by just pushing a button, there is a strong need for a benevolent force that effectively puts a stop to this.

In the end, it must be imprinted in our deepest consciousness: The earth does not need us. It nourishes and carries us all. And we would be well-advised to direct all our inventive genius to ensuring that it remains this way.

It seems tragic that in 2015, the UN has formulated goals like: No Hunger! The right to access of clean water! Protection of the climate! More justice! Gender equality! Goals that should never have been formulated, because they should be fundamental rights.

 

We are visual beings

Through the eyes we virtually absorb information in the form of pictures. And with photography, the new medium of the 20th century, photographers brought home realities from all over the world. They shocked people. They mercilessly demonstrated what hunger, poverty, war and oppression really are, what power can make out of people. 

Photographers helped to end wars with their pictures. Nick Út caused horrified people to take to the streets with his pictures and the pressure of these protests led to the end of the Vietnam War. Dorothea Lange's photographic documentation of the poverty of Americans during the Great Depression of the 1930s resulted in government aid, and the photographs of Elliott Erwitt and others contributed to at least reducing discrimination based on skin color, although recent events show that there is still a long way to go. 

At the same time, photographers show the beauty on this planet. Who does not know them? Nature shots by Sebastião Salgado, colorful documentaries by Steve McCurry, and Georg Gerster's series “The Earth from Above”. They all document fascination and fragility at the same time.

If we saw the beauty and uniqueness of this world every day, above the desks of doers, on the walls of planners, in the hearts of designers, leaders, in the news, on the walls at home, on the surfaces of buildings – would we take better care of this world and its people, would we protect them better?

Sustainable Development Goals

The 17 goals for sustainable development agreed upon by the United Nations in 2015 should make the world a better place. Driven by this vision of a better world, photographers have always been documentalists of the bright and dark sides of this world and of the people who are living in it.

In a unique photography project, The Global Fine Art presents these photographic achievements following the ideas of the 17 Goals on a weekly basis. These 17 goals are represented by labels. Labels become images. Images become another awareness and hopefully another awareness turns into action. Actions to make the world a better place, one by one. We owe this to the photographers, some of whom are desperately documenting. But we owe it even more to the weaker ones, to those who are suffering, hungry or disadvantaged and to the children in this world.