Extreme heat, effective imagery

These conditions, made both worse and more frequent by climate change, bring with them stark health risks and consequences in daily life. Yet whilst reporting of these impacts increasingly detail these realities, the imagery accompanying them follows a familiar theme – people enjoying the sunshine, on the beach or in fountains – traditional summer weather pictures.

Extreme heat isn’t fun, its impacts are serious and unequal, and the need to adapt to these conditions is urgent. Photography can play an important role in communicating these realities, and highlighting what communities are doing in the face of them, but to do so we need more of the right pictures.

Climate Visuals has a number of resources to aid the better visual depiction of extreme heat:

• A new, and growing, collection of extreme heat images, freely available for non-profit, educational and editorial purposes. We’ll be continuing to add to this at any opportunity.
• Guidance for more accurate and effective extreme heat photography – how to take and use images that move beyond familiar visual cliches and images of fun in the sun, and instead tell detailed, nuanced, and engaging stories about its risks, as well as helping to visualise adaptation and mitigation.

We’re also part of a major new research project in partnership with academics at the University of Exeter and along with partners in the media and health sectors to build a more complete, accurate picture of extreme heat in the news media. Find out more and take part.

Do you have images that you would like to share through Climate Visuals? Get in touch.