Showing climate action: exploring Fridays for Future Germany’s visual activism on Flickr

Abstract

This article examines how Fridays for Future Germany (FFFG) uses photographs of climate protests to convey the politics of climate change to wider audiences. The author argues that FFFG is an ideal-type form of visual activism in which visual imagery is central to its climate activism. The article builds on climate change communication scholarship and visual social movement studies to contribute an inquiry about FFFG’s visual activism. The focus is on FFFG’s visual self-representations on the social media platform Flickr, which promises to give insights into its strategies of self-legitimation. The empirical analysis discusses the recurring visual patterns in FFFG’s visual activism based on illustrative examples and provides an interpretive reading about the implications of certain ways of seeing and showing climate action. The conclusion puts the findings in a wider political context, highlighting the importance of visualization in the (self-)legitimation of FFFG in debates about global climate governance.

Keywords

climate change communication Fridays for Future social media social movements visual activism

Introduction

This article explores how Fridays for Future Germany (FFFG) uses photographs of climate protests to visually convey the politics of climate change to wider audiences. It rests upon the assumption that visualization, via the movement’s various social media channels, is central to its climate activism (see also Mattoni and Teune, 2014; McGarry et al., 2020). Thus, FFFG can be considered an ideal-type of visual activism, in which ‘the visual is marshaled in the service of wider political efforts’ (Bryan-Wilson et al., 2016: 5). While visual activism draws on debates at the intersection of art history, performance and visual culture, I use the term here to point out the importance of visual imagery for activist purposes (see also Chalabi, 2016; Hartle and White, 2022; Mirzoeff, 2015).

Recent scholarship from different fields, including environmental communication, media studies, political science, social movement studies and research on future climate imaginaries and narratives, has discovered the global climate movement Fridays for Future (FFF) as a distinct subject of study. One of the reasons why FFF has received heightened scholarly attention, not to mention its political and societal recognition, is arguably its tremendous success of mobilizing millions of people around the world to fight global climate change. No other climate movement before has mobilized such a sheer quantity of people. Hardly anyone could arguably ever imagine the scale of this climate activism when the movement started with the school strike of a young female student, Greta Thunberg, in front of the Swedish parliament in August 2018.

Only one year later, in September 2019, the current height of the movement, six million people in thousands of cities and towns across the globe took to the streets to demand greater action against climate change. According to a spokesperson of FFF, the Global Week for Future was the ‘biggest ever climate mobilization’ (Taylor et al., 2019). Also, referring to the impact of the movement on German climate change policies, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that ‘they certainly drove us to speed up’ (Eddy, 2019).

How did FFF achieve such an exceptional degree of legitimacy in global climate politics while, simultaneously, there were various attempts from the far-right to the liberal spectrum to delegitimize their activism (Frankfurter Rundschau, 2019; Pötter, 2020)? For instance, Christian Lindner of the Liberal Party, now German Minister for Finances, once said that climate protection should be left to the professionals. Furthermore, in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world imposed strict measures to cope with the global health crisis. In particular, the prohibition of large gatherings in public spaces in combination with the imperative of social distancing and far-reaching lockdowns has taken a heavy toll on FFF’s visual and visible activism. Among other issues, these impediments gave rise to questioning the legitimacy of the climate movement in times of other pressing issues and needs (Haßler et al., 2021).

This article builds on climate change communication scholarship (DiFrancesco and Young, 2011; Gammelgaard Ballantyne, 2016; Nerlich et al., 2009; Schneider and Nocke, 2014) and visual social movement studies (Doerr and Teune, 2013; McGarry et al., 2020; Neumayer and Rossi, 2018) with the aim of contributing an analysis of FFFG’s visual activism. Put differently, it explores the visual dimension of FFFG’s climate activism, that is photographs of its official Flickr account. This suggests turning to the movement’s visual self-representations instead of, as other studies have done, examining how it is represented by others, such as mainstream media outlets (e.g. Hayes and O’Neill, 2021). The focus on imagery produced or endorsed by FFFG promises to give insights into its strategies of self-legitimation. These include, as the empirical discussion will show in more detail, portrayals of a movement that is encompassing, proactive, urban and gender-aware. The article recognizes FFF as an important actor in the visual communication of climate change imaginaries and narratives. This implies that visibility and visualization play crucial roles in the (self-)legitimation of FFF in debates about global climate governance. Furthermore, given the outstanding position of FFF in the attention economy of climate change, it is important to examine how it visualizes, that is, by extension, creates awareness of, the much-discussed global climate crisis.

To further examine FFF’s visual activism, I will first engage with the current scholarship focusing on the movement in more detail in order to carve out the article’s particular contribution. The second part presents the article’s research design. Afterwards, the third part scrutinizes the recurring visual patterns in FFF’s visual activism and provides an interpretive reading of the implications of certain ways of seeing and showing climate action. Finally, the conclusion puts the findings in a wider political context.

Fridays for future as a research subject sui generis

As a relatively new subject of study, FFF has been examined from a range of disciplines and areas of research. These include communication and media studies (Drieschova, 2021; Haßler et al., 2021; Von Zabern and Tulloch, 2021), environmental studies (Boucher et al., 2021; Hayes and O’Neill, 2021; Noth and Tonzer, 2022; Sisco et al., 2021; Sorce and Dumitrica, 2021; Von Wehrden et al., 2019; Wallis and Loy, 2021), research on imaginaries and narratives of the future (De Moor, 2021; Marquardt, 2020) as well as social movement studies (De Moor et al., 2021; Haunss and Sommer, 2020; Hunger and Hutter, 2021; Svensson and Wahlström, 2021). This body of scholarship addresses a wide spectrum of questions.

One line of research examines the attitudes, behaviours and motivations of FFF activists (Boucher et al., 2021; Noth and Tonzer, 2022; Wahlström et al., 2019; Wallis and Loy, 2021). An important finding concerning the sociology of FFF is that the attitudes and actions for addressing climate change vary by demographic group (Boucher et al., 2021). For instance, younger activists were more likely to be vegetarian or vegan than older environmentalists. Female activists based their purchasing decisions more on climate or environmental considerations than male activists. Other scholars contend that FFF represents new forms of climate activism in that its messages are politically more neutral (‘listen to science’) and therefore easier to be accepted by larger audiences (see also Marquardt, 2020). Moreover, FFF would address mainly local and national governments compared to previous climate movements which instead targeted non-state stakeholders such as corporations (De Moor et al., 2021). Another strand of research discusses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the activism of the climate movement (Haßler et al., 2021; Hunger and Hutter, 2021; Sorce and Dumitrica, 2021). It finds flexibility in the ways in which FFF continues to engage with and mobilize its supporters; examples are online only as well as hybrid protests. Furthermore, researchers noted that FFF established a link between the global climate crisis and the ongoing global health crisis under the hashtag ‘fighteverycrisis’ (Sorce and Dumitrica, 2021). More recently, the movement discursively linked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to its fight against climate change, arguing that renewable energy bears tremendous geopolitical significance; that is, reducing energy dependency from Russia via the expansion of renewable energy would enhance energy sovereignty.

The movement’s reference to the rhetoric of crisis prompts scholars to ask about its climate imaginaries of the future (Marquardt, 2020) and narratives (De Moor, 2021). While the study of (post-)apocalyptic narratives in FFF promises to give insights into the movement’s strategies and tactics, exploring climate imaginaries reveals its competing ideas about the future social and political order. What all these studies on communication, framing, imaginaries and narratives of FFF have in common is their analytical focus on language- and text-based sources and materials. Using a diverse set of methodological approaches ranging from computational social science to qualitative methods, current scholarship, certainly for good reasons, analyses news articles, interviews, official documents and speeches by FFF representatives and groups.

This article contributes to a central and under-researched aspect of current studies of FFF, namely its visualization of climate action. For, despite the rich literature on visual climate change communication (Born, 2019; Boykoff et al., 2021; Culloty et al., 2019; DiFrancesco and Young, 2011; Hayes and O’Neill, 2021; Manzo, 2010; O’Neill and Smith, 2014; Painter et al., 2018; Schneider and Nocke, 2014) and scholarship, which has pointed out the nexus of contentious politics and visual imagery (Doerr and Teune, 2013; McGarry et al., 2020; Neumayer and Rossi, 2018; Philipps, 2012; Rovisco and Veneti, 2017), an analysis of the ways in which FFF puts its climate action to work in images, surprisingly, has not been done so far. While the former body of research seeks to examine how images help in disseminating knowledge about the issues and implications of climate change, the latter shows how protest movements have used images and symbols for expressing their goals and identities, mobilize supporters and generate a wider visibility in media or political circles for their concerns. Bringing together these debates is one of the aims of this article.

While some scholars have examined visual representations of FFF protests (e.g. Hayes and O’Neill, 2021), they have concentrated on externally-produced depictions of the movement in media outlets. Visual self-representations have not been the subject of study so far. An exception is Molder et al.’s (2022) study of Greta Thunberg’s Instagram account in which they use visual and textual elements to examine how Thunberg frames the fight against climate change as a moral and ethical issue. What they find is that Thunberg uses emotional appeals of hope as a way to motivate collective action. Thus, self-representations play a crucial role in engaging and mobilizing public support. While social media platforms, where many of these images are shared, have become vital digital spaces for activism as they allow movements like FFF to directly reach wider audiences, there are also other reasons for focusing on visual self-representations.

For instance, by analysing photographs that FFFG chooses to share, we can gain insights into how the movement sees itself and/or wishes to be seen by others. Self-expressions are usually considered to be authentic as they are not imposed on by outsiders, which, in turn, is critical for a movement’s legitimacy and strategy for mobilizing support. Furthermore, FFFG’s photographs are not merely documentary but carefully curated to highlight certain aspects of their activism, such as the scale of participation, the demographic diversity of protestors and the emotional intensity of their events. Examining these images reveals how FFFG uses photographs to construct certain narratives of climate activism and position itself within a broader climate change discourse.

In the context of social movements, legitimacy is not just a matter of formal recognition but, as indicated above, also one of public perception and support. FFFG’s visual self-representations play an important role in its efforts to legitimize its goals, methods and values. By showcasing mass participation and peaceful determined activism, FFFG can be seen to counteract attempts that question its legitimacy or portray it as fringe or radical by other political actors. These visuals can serve as evidence of widespread concern and commitment to climate action, reinforcing the movement’s moral and political legitimacy.

So the neglect of FFF’s own visual narratives and imaginaries is surprising because images and imagery are pivotal in the movement’s climate activism. They are not just supplementary to their activism, but central to their strategies for communication, mobilization and legitimation. At the same time, studies on social movements, which have previously highlighted the role of images in protest have yet to turn to the global climate movement. While this might be due to the novel character of the FFF movement, in even one of the most recent and most comprehensive studies on the aesthetics of contentious politics (McGarry et al., 2020), examinations of the visual politics of climate or environmental groups are missing. Other protest movements such as the Turkish Gezi Park protests, the US Black Lives Matter or Occupy Wall Street seem to resonate better within this field of study.

Elsewhere, I have sought to examine visual climate storytelling of FFF (own work). Climate narration seems to be a more effective way of conveying the often scientific-heavy and jargon-loaded language of climate science to broader audiences (Bloomfield and Manktelow, 2021). Embedding climate change into a story that corresponds better with the day-to-day experiences of individuals, visual climate storytelling of FFF is enhanced through strategies of simplification (using images to make climate change more accessible), personalization (producing self-made videos and performances to narrate climate change) and individual action (using images to showcase climate action and protest).

There are a range of examples exemplifying the centrality of visual imagery for FFF, which the empirical analysis section will show in more detail. One example is the famous mass demonstrations which culminated, as mentioned in the introduction, in the year 2019. These global mass gatherings not only signified the growing demand to take action against climate change on an international scale but they were significant visual events themselves, which produced iconic images for audiences around the world. In this vein, this article adds to current scholarship on the representation of climate change in visual media as well as images and social protest, a discussion of FFF’s visual-based activism.

Research design

The discussion of FFFG’s visual activism is informed by a critical approach towards visual methodology (Rose, 2022). This means, for instance, in order to take images seriously, they not only reflect or are illustrative of political contexts but are themselves political as well as politically significant. Hence, the importance of discussing visual imagery of climate action. I will address the site of visual production, that is the self-representations of the climate initiative and not its external depictions as other scholars have done (see e.g. Hayes and O’Neill, 2021; Von Zabern and Tulloch, 2021). The focus on the self-portrayal of FFFG is an acknowledgement of the movement’s central role in the production of climate visuals (Schneider and Nocke, 2014) and, thus, how the issue of climate change is (to be) understood and acted upon by public audiences.

FFFG directly engages with public audiences via its social media presence. This includes, for instance, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, TikTok and X. The sheer quantity of images produced and circulated on these social media platforms, not to mention the multiplicity of actors of this decentralized and highly fragmented climate initiative, poses significant challenges for researchers in discussing and better understanding FFF’s politics of visibility (see also Blaagaard et al., 2017, who focus on the allocation of publicity due to cultural and social capital). In fact, FFF are multiple movements and initiatives fragmented on, for instance, national, regional and local levels. In order to make meaningful statements about the movement’s visual activism, I will focus on one particular medium, Flickr, which hosts the official picture gallery of the German branch of FFF. The channel features approximately 600 photographs as of March 2023.

Flickr is a good example of a visual media platform and is therefore suitable for the study of visual climate activism. Furthermore, FFFG’s Flickr account, which was created in 2019, functions as a visual archive of its protest activities. In this way, it documents the activism of FFFG for a public audience in a user-friendly way. Photographs are sorted according to events in so-called ‘albums’ and showcase pictures of global, national or regional protests. Interested parties such as the media or the general public can easily access and download imagery for free at different resolutions, something which is a special feature of Flickr when compared to other social media platforms, and perhaps one of the reasons why FFFG has a Flickr presence at all. FFFG’s channel has been accessed over 350,000 times according to its own count since it went online.

Accessibility is an additional advantage in terms of research practicalities as it facilitates the analysis of the movement’s visual rhetoric. Given the target audiences, i.e. the press and the general public, it can reasonably be assumed that photographs are carefully taken, selected and presented to outsiders. In this way, the Flickr images provide valuable insights into the kinds of climate visibilities the movement wants audiences to see of their activism. Moreover, while the image-sharing website was more popular in the 2010s, the very fact that FFFG presents its images of popular dissent on Flickr and considers the website a suitable tool for showcasing its visual activism makes a discussion of such images worthy of analysis.

It is also important to note that images posted on Flickr (e.g. FFFG, 2022a; FFFG, 2022b) also appear on other social media sites, such as Instagram (e.g. FFFG, 2022c). This cross-media appearance of climate action suggests that specific visual patterns and narratives are transmedial. Therefore, the politics of climate visibility – that is the manner in which the movement visualizes climate action – takes place across social media platforms. The German branch of FFF is one of its most successful offshoots, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of supporters, thus suggesting far-reaching political and societal impact.

The following section addresses what FFFG wants an interested public to see of its activism. This implies posing broader additional questions about what is (not) shown and how and what implications arise from certain ways of seeing and showing climate activism. Images play a crucial role as they make contentious politics visible or invisible and therefore knowable or unknowable to an audience. The empirical discussion is, hence, informed by scholarship which has inquired into the politics of visibility and invisibility (Brighenti, 2010; Chouliaraki and Stolic, 2017; Friis, 2015; Martschukat and Niedermeier, 2013; Van Vereen, 2018). In particular, this article seeks to explore the ramifications of the ways in which climate action is made visible to public audiences by FFFG. What are the recurring visual patterns in FFFG’s visual activism? How do persistent visual practices work to normalize certain understandings of climate change? Therefore I will not highlight the analysis or impact of individual pictures but seek to discuss particular patterns of visibility (Blaagaard et al., 2017; Chouliaraki and Stolic, 2017). In order to do this, I have selected photographs for illustrative purposes in the following section. They are meant to exemplify the recurring visual patterns in FFFG’s climate communication.

Visibility, in this article’s case, is constructed and conveyed through photographs of popular dissent. Therefore, I have examined FFFG’s protest photography, which means to stay rather close to the content of the images themselves. I have approached the empirical material in an open-ended manner without preconceived categories. This involved a deepened engagement of the account’s photography, which allowed me to identify and evaluate broader visual themes. In the following section, I provide an interpretive reading of what follows from particular visual patterns and the movement’s conditions of visibility.

Visualizing climate activism

In this section, I present the recurring patterns found in FFFG’s visual activism on Flickr. As mentioned above, the guiding questions of this visual analysis are what do they want us to see and what are the implications of such ways of seeing and showing climate activism? The analysis of FFFG’s Flickr channel shows that its visual activism is characterized by an emphasis on: first, showing masses of people; second, public/urban spaces; and, third, female and young activists. Each pattern will be discussed below on the basis of an illustrative example.

Mass of people

The emphasis on showing large-scale protests is apparent in FFFG visual activism. Figure 1 shows an illustrative picture of a protest march on the occasion of so-called Global Climate Strikes on 25 March 2022. In the city of Aachen, activists and supporters gathered that day to ‘uproot the system’ and to emphasize that people and not profit should be prioritized, both popular global slogans of the climate movement. The picture shows people in action, that is people who take action; they are on the move, hold banners and posters, and wave their flags. The photograph is defined by a sense of density. The tight pictorial frame focuses on massed ranks, who are flanked by an avenue of trees. Other examples of the movement’s protest photography are demonstrations with references to local or national environmental issues (e.g. 27 August 2021 #NichtWieInNRW). The focus on masses of people is certainly not surprising given the fact that the climate movement mobilized millions – a perhaps exceptional feat. Therefore, observers of FFF are familiar with images of mass protests.

Figure 1.

A picture conveying a sense of scale of an FFF protest. © ‘Fridays for Future Germany’ (FFFG, 2022d).

Yet, it should be noted that such large-scale protests, which arguably draw more followers than other environment-related protests and movements, are significant visual events for the climate initiative. In other words, they play an important role for the activism of FFF. Research has shown that these mass demonstrations have a pronounced impact on the attention of the general public on the issue of climate change (Sisco et al., 2021). For instance, seeking information about climate change on the internet has increased significantly since 2019, when global mass protests reached their peak. These mass protests, therefore, draw enormous attention to the issue of climate change. Even though the heightened attention seems to be short-lived, the mass rallies generate a global awareness comparable to international political events such as the United Nations Climate Change Conferences (pp. 5–6). Images arguably help to convey a sense of scale of these climate protests.

Another example to illustrate the importance for FFF of presenting mass protests to public audiences is that of the Covid-19-related restrictions on public gatherings. In the wake of the ban on public assembly, particularly in 2020 and 2021, no mass protests could take place. Hence, no images of large crowds could be circulated. Instead, creative forms of protests (e.g. large-scale banner and street paintings, FFFG, 2020) in combination with smaller gatherings, in which activists were shown to practise social distancing, could be seen during the lockdowns. During the pandemic, which includes also the non-visibility of mass protests, discussions emerged about the legitimacy of the climate movement in the face of other unfolding crises (Haßler et al., 2021). At least for a moment, it seemed that the subject of climate change had fallen behind societal debates on public health.

Another function of the visibility of large-scale protests is that it helps to sustain the narrative that FFF is practising grassroots democracy – one of the central founding principles. Research on the legitimacy of global governance institutions has claimed that actors ‘make explicit associations between themselves and commonly perceived sources of legitimacy, such as the purported democratic credentials, technocratic standards, and fairness of a governing institution’ (Bäckstrand and Söderbaum, 2018: 109). Moreover, this body of research has also suggested that the rise of private actors, non-governmental organizations and transnational networks could lead to the loss of democratic oversight, casting doubt on the legitimacy of such agents (Steffek, 2009: 314). In particular, the democratic credentials of the climate movement, its purported openness, inclusivity and wide reach, are arguably the main sources of legitimacy, which endow its political claims with a certain degree of authority. In other words, mass protests are intertwined with its visibility as well as legitimacy in the case of FFF.

In sum, large-scale protests and the visuals that capture them are central to FFFG’s efforts to enhance public awareness about climate change and demonstrating the movement’s commitment to grassroots democracy. Images of these mass gatherings play a crucial role in legitimizing its activism and engaging audiences.

Urban space

Virtually all climate protests of FFFG are shown to take place in cities. Often, these iconic mass demonstrations are held at or close to landmark buildings and areas in urban space, including the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (see Figure 2 as a typical example), the Frauenkirche in Munich (e.g. FFFG, 2019a) and the City Hall Marketplace of Hamburg (e.g. FFFG, 2021a). With the emphasis on urban spaces, FFFG highlights a significant aspect of the movement's strategy for visibility and impact. This choice is not merely logistical in the sense that such places facilitate the arrival and departure of protestors, but also symbolic, harnessing the cultural and political significance of these urban centres to draw attention to the urgency of climate action. The urban-centric approach, however, raises issues regarding the inclusivity and representativeness of the climate movement. The focus on urban spaces might suggest a negligence of other spaces and sites for the movement’s climate activism, such as rural areas and communities, especially in the Global South, where communities are disproportionately affected by climate change. In particular, when seen in the light of various reports indicating the heightened vulnerability of (parts of) the Global South to the effects of climate change, such a potential misalignment can raise questions including to what extent other places and regions are considered less relevant for concerns of climate justice (Huq and Adow, 2022; IPCC, 2022).

Figure 2.

Protest taking place in urban space. © ‘Fridays for Future Germany’ (FFFG, 2021b).

The urban visibility of FFFG protests may contribute to a public perception of the movement as predominantly middle-class, mobile, progressive, well-educated and young. While this kind of visibility aligns with the sociology of the movement (Boucher et al., 2021; Haunss and Sommer, 2020), it can alienate potential supporters who do not see themselves reflected in the movement, including those from rural, lower-income and education or older demographics. More important, this form of visual activism, that is through constant repetitions on social media for instance, can bear the risk of normalizing certain understandings of climate action; namely, that it is an interest of an urban elite rather than a universal imperative.

Criticisms of exclusivity and elitism within FFFG reflect broader concerns about who gets to participate in and shape the climate activism discourse. Former activists have drawn attention to the movement’s focus on urban protests, which could sideline voices from marginalized communities, undermining the inclusive narrative of climate justice (Traub, 2020). Scholars have pointed out that forms of exclusion also depend on the visibility of certain groups in urban, public spaces (Sezer, 2020). Visibility in these contexts can affirm one’s right to participate in public life and influence policy, suggesting that those less visible, whether due to geographic location, socio-economic status or age, are less entitled to engage in the climate conversation.

Thus, while FFFG’s focus on urban protests effectively draws attention to climate issues, it also prompts concerns about inclusivity, potentially overlooking rural and marginalized communities, and reinforcing perceptions of climate activism as an interest of the urban elite.

Female/young (white) activists

FFFG’s visual activism foregrounds a visibility of young and female protestors. The collage of pictures in Figure 3 exemplifies this form of visibility. It shows young women in the frontline of protest marches. The top picture shows leading figures of the climate movement such as the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and the German activist Luisa Neubauer. The ranks are closed; the protestors raise their fists; they are determined to demand change. The collage also illustrates the heightened sensibility of the movement’s members for the concurrence of multiple global crises: they not only take action against climate change but they are also considerate of each other in the face of the, at that time, ongoing Covid-19 pandemic by wearing medical masks. In this way, they reflect(ed) the majority opinion of society, which held that masks protect oneself and others, and which is one of FFF’s central mantra: listen to science – whether it is climate science or pathogenic/biological science. Interestingly, considerateness and listening attentively usually align with societal expectations of femininity. In other words, the emphasis on empathy and scientific adherence underscores here the womanhood of the activists.¹

Figure 3.

Pictures highlighting white female youth agency:

The visual emphasis on young women corresponds with sociological studies of the movement, which find that one of its peculiar features are female youth activists (Boucher et al., 2021; Noth and Tonzer, 2022). For some scholars, the focus on the agency of young women implies a shift in the way that climate change related issues are portrayed in the public realm (Hayes and O’Neill, 2021). While climate activism, particularly in mainstream media outlets, would have been viewed from the perspective of a protest paradigm, a media frame which depicts activists as socially deviant, it is now considered a matter of intergenerational justice (see also Knappe and Renn, 2022; Von Zabern and Tulloch, 2021. Images foregrounding female protestors play a crucial role in this framing (Hayes and O’Neill, 2021). Climate justice’s relation to time and age is another important factor. The debate is imbued with questions of generational equity between age groups who have lived beyond their ecological means and younger cohorts who have to bear the ensuing costs. The emphasis on young female activists and leaders by FFF also aptly stands in contrast to traditional forms of leadership – old, male – in many countries around the world.

The portrayal of intergenerational justice and the question of how future generations have to cope with the effects of climate change can sideline another meta narrative prevalent in FFF’s climate change communication: climate justice between the Global North and Global South. Essentially, if climate justice is solely seen and portrayed as a matter for future generations, also reinforced by prevalent images of youth protestors, it can obscure the fact that areas and people in the Global South, both in the past and in the present, were already affected by changes to the climate. While the focus on the future, prominently captured in the climate movement’s name itself, suggests that climate change can still be avoided or coped with, if necessary action is taken for the most affected people and areas – usually in the Global South – climate change has always been a reality.

The question of climate justice between the Global North and Global South touches upon a related subject in climate activism, that is racism and the lack of diversity in such movements. This is not meant to delve deeper into the important debate on how the diverging impact of climate change highlights the pre-existing division along racial lines. Others have done this more fruitfully (e.g. Ituen and Tatu Hey, 2021; Sealey-Huggins, 2018; Williams, 2021; Yarde, 2022). Here, I only seek to point out the apparent importance of assessing the visibility of diversity and inclusion within contemporary climate activism (see also Vasconcelos and Groneweg, 2021; Opitz, 2019). This is also one of the reasons why a visual emphasis on white activism, such as in Figure 3, can be problematic (see also Grünlicht Milieu, 2022; Malkowski, 2022).²

Arguably the most famous example of rendering non-white climate agency invisible is Ugandan FFF activist Vanessa Nakate, who was cropped from a press photo with other well-known, albeit white, female protestors. Standing next to, among others, Greta Thunberg and Luisa Neubauer, who attended the 2020 World Economic Forum, Nakate, as the only non-white and non-European, was left out by the Associated Press (AP). Later AP apologized to Nakate and republished the original photo.

Another example is Tonny Nowshin, a Black, indigenous and people of colour (BIPoC) activist, who, six months after Nakate, was excluded from pictures shared on social media by Greenpeace Germany (Nowshin, 2020). Nowshin stated that she was visible in plenty of protest pictures. However, none of the photos featuring her were chosen for publication. Only pictures featuring her fellow female protestors, all white and some of them from the FFF movement, were circulated. Greenpeace Germany later issued a statement in which it responded to the accusation of racism (Greenpeace Germany, 2020). It apologized and vowed to learn from the incident.

Both episodes are good examples which point to the importance of seeing and showing racial/ethnic diversity in visualizing contemporary climate activism. They prompt reflection on how climate activism is portrayed, whether it is by media outlets or activist organizations, and the implicit messages conveyed about who is deemed a legitimate or typical climate activist. Important to note is that visibilities are crucial for how we understand climate action.

In sum, FFFG’s visual activism prominently features young and female protesters, highlighting the movement’s focus on intergenerational justice. This focus, however, can neglect discussions on inclusivity and the representation of diverse voices within the movement, pointing to the need to maintain diversity in the visual representation of climate activism.

Conclusion

In this article, I have examined how the German branch of FFF visually mediates climate action on Flickr. The goal was to shed light on how climate movements make their activism visible to broader audiences. I found that FFFG’s visual activism is defined by highlighting the agency of masses protesting in urban space as well as, if we zoom in on the crowd, young female, white activists. It should be mentioned, however, that there are notable exceptions in the way that FFFG portrays diversity in its protest photography. For instance, on the occasion of the 25 March 2022 Global Climate Strike, FFFG has presented a greater geographical variety of climate protest from around the world including Bangladesh (FFFG, 2022f), the Philippines (FFFG, 2022g) and Sierra Leone (FFFG, 2022h). It also included the depiction of BIPoC activists during climate protests in Germany (FFFG, 2022i).

The visibility offered by these photographs serves as a mechanism for FFFG’s self-legitimation, portraying the movement as both democratic and inclusive. Yet, the juxtaposition of democratic ideals with instances of perceived elitism raises questions about the movement's internal coherence and authenticity. This contradiction between claiming democracy while appearing elitist is addressed by acknowledging the movement’s ongoing efforts to increase inclusivity and diversity, which are vital for its legitimacy. The visual emphasis on diverse global protests and the inclusion of BIPoC activists illustrate FFFG’s response to critiques and its continued commitment to broadening its appeal. Such actions show the movement’s awareness in reconciling these contradictions, thus contributing to its self-legitimation process.

It is precisely the controversy about more diversity in the representation of environmental activism that acknowledges the importance of this connection between ways of seeing and ways of knowing. Pointing out the particular visibilities of protest (e.g. exclusive vs inclusive) is important because seeing climate action is tantamount to knowing climate action.

To better understand the visual narratives and politics of climate change communication, future research should explore the concept of transmediality further. Transmedial representations of climate change seem to suggest that images and narratives about climate change are not necessarily connected to a particular medium, say, social media, but transcend those boundaries reaching into the spheres of art, film, music, and so on. Another strand of prospective research could assess how certain images and stories about climate change travel across different media so as to have an impact on audiences and how certain narratives achieve cross-medial dominance and establish, reinforce or challenge forms of hierarchies. Further questions to be asked include whether climate visibilities, which reach beyond different media, have the same effects in different cultural or political contexts.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

This paper has benefitted from my 2021/2022 Senior Research Fellowship `Visual Narratives of Climate Change’ of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg and the collaborative research project `Security Imaginaries of Climate Movements,’ jointly funded by the University of Groningen and the University of Hamburg. For valuable research and editorial assistance, I would like to thank Gilda Mazilu, Lars Venema, Gijs de Vries, Laurenz Krumbacher, Kasia Lukowska and Hisham Alghamdi.

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

ORCID iD

David Shim

Notes

Biographical Note

DAVID SHIM is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Groningen and visiting researcher at the Chair of International Politics and Conflict Studies of the Bundeswehr University Munich. David is interested in the visual and spatial dimensions of global politics and works at the intersection of International Relations, Geography and Area Studies. David’s work on different visual media – comics, memorials, film, photography, satellite imagery, video – has contributed to the study of visual politics. He has translated some of his research activities into teaching practice on his blog Visual Global Politics. His work has appeared, among other places, in Geoforum, International Political Sociology, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific and Review of International Studies. His book Visual Politics and North Korea (2013) is available from Routledge.

Address: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, Oude Kijk in't Jatstraat 26, Groningen 9712EK, The Netherlands [ email: david.shim@rug.nl]

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