Peter Essick’s Construction Site, Stone Mountain, GA #1

Peter Essick's series titled, “Construction Sites,” focuses on areas of rapid change in the environment. Forest, farms, old structures or empty lots are converted to new buildings with large capital investments of energy and materials. As such, construction sites are snapshots of how a society views development, progress and the treatment of the environment. The familiar jobs verse the environment argument has taken on a new meaning in the age of climate change, population growth, forever chemicals and sustainability. Construction sites can be either symbols of economic growth or as a tremendous drain on valuable environmental resources. He sees these temporary landscapes as metaphors for how we are choosing to construct the future.

Peter Essick is a photographer, author, speaker, instructor and drone pilot who specializes in nature and environmental themes. Named one of the 40 most influential nature photographers in the world by Outdoor Photography Magazine UK, Essick has been influenced by many noted American landscape photographers from Carleton Watkins to Robert Adams. His goal is to make photographs that move beyond mere documentation to reveal in careful compositions the human impact of development as well as the enduring power of the land.

Essick is the author of three monographs, “The Ansel Adams Wilderness,” “Our Beautiful, Fragile World,” and “Fernbank Forest.” Essick has photographed stories for National Geographic on many environmental issues, including climate change, high-tech trash, nuclear waste and freshwater. Essick’s photographs are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Booth Western Art Museum.