Climate change can be tough to wrap your head around. Far-reaching in impact, complex in cause, its a phenomenon that’s sometimes hard to visualize. A new exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre in Toronto is doing its part to make the subject accessible through photography and video. 

The Edge of the Earth: Climate Change in Photography and Video is open from September 14 to December 4. More than 20 artists from around the world contributed to the exhibition, including Amy Balkin, Raymond Boisjoly, Edward Burtynsky, Naoya Hatakeyama, Isabelle Hayeur, Mishka Henner, Chris Jordan, Richard Misrach, Evariste Richer, Joel Sternfeld and Sharon Stewart. 

“We need to renew our approach to climate change,” says Montréal-based art historian Dr. Bénédicte Ramade, who guest curated the exhibition. “Since climate change is by nature disproportionate, it often overwhelms our understanding of scale and impact, becoming virtually impossible to visualize. Art is certainly one of the most powerful mediators for changing our vision.” 

At times vast and sweeping, sometimes infinitessimally subtle, the collection of photos and video challenges the viewer to think about the environment around them and people’s impact upon it.