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Design Professor Spencer Ladd, who believes art can enlighten people about sustainability issues throughout the world, has traveled to Ecuador to photograph that country's land and residents. Above photo shows a home ruined by flooding in Imbabura; the photo below shows the organic sustainable mountain garden of Geronimo Ramos Valverde and Maria Dolores Rogero Lara, Perbuelia, Imbabura, Ecuador.
UMass
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D a r t m o u t h
time about the ways in which visual communication can effect social change, especially in terms of the environment. Now I have the opportunity to do that.” Motivated by his Easton observations, Ladd began research that eventually took him to Imbabura, Ecuador, located in what Conservation International labels a tropical Andes “hotspot.” Ladd has traveled to Imbabura three times (most recently in January), spending 10 to 14 days on each trip. With help from environmentalist and Imbabura resident Nicholas Peter Shear, Ladd visits farmers who have “truly kitchen gardens in that the kitchen door really does open up on to them. “This is an area of high biodiversity. The Andes is like a quilted pattern of farms. The land has mostly been cultivated and there is little of pristine nature left. Most mountain farmers are poor, and some lack education in sustainability practices.” The degree of poverty is matched by the fragility of the ecosystem, said Ladd, thus spawning the typical debates over how best to use natural resources— to sustain the present residents or to protect them for future generations. Simultaneously, mining, timber, and narcotics interests, along with increased urbanization, are threatening those resources. “Yet, awareness of the importance of mountain agriculture appears to be limited,” said Ladd, who hopes his photographs can trigger an emotional response that would lead to greater understanding and advocacy. “The photos represent the people and places in a way that is clear and easy to understand. We need to educate both the indigenous people and the world in general. I feel these can help the scientific community make its message more compelling.” Ladd’s Andean initiative serves also to enlighten his design students. “I want them to reconsider what some may think a graphic designer can do. This shows them that the designer does not work only in advertising or for commercial enterprises. Why can’t the designer advocate for something?” Ladd, who exhibited his work on campus in 2007, brings his photos of the Andean paramo (the fragile mountain ecozone) to next month's World Paramo Congress, which will draw roughly 700 people from the U.S., South America, and Africa to Loja, Ecuador. “When students ask if an artist can use art to also be an advocate, I can show them what I’ve done, and demonstrate that your work as an artist can be used beyond your profession.”