Our annual DocuFlorida exhibition invites artists to submit photographic and video works that capture the environment of Northwest Florida and the larger Gulf Coast region. The exhibition began as an ode to the Environmental Protection Agency’s sweeping documentary project DOCUMERICA. From 1972 to 1978, the EPA recruited over a hundred photographers to chronicle America’s changing landscape and the burgeoning environmental movement. The resulting collection of over 20,000 photographs presents a lasting snapshot of the American environmental crisis and movement for positive change that has only grown larger and more urgent over the past fifty years.

In conjunction with the STEAM2020 exhibition, this year’s DocuFlorida selections question and illuminate the interdependent and antithetical ecological relationships of our area. The images depict the interplay between the landscape and the built environment, efforts to protect and document our natural world, and the sobering impact of 2018’s Category 5 Hurricane Michael. The recent photographic work is paired with images and ephemera from the University of West Florida Historic Trust Collections that represent over a hundred years of local environmental history and change. In addition to the gallery selections, video work will be screened on the exterior of the building throughout the run of the exhibition.