Provocative exhibition confronts hidden costs of climate action

A bold new photography exhibition opening this summer pulls no punches in tackling the global inequalities buried in environmental narratives. Poisoned Futures? brings together the powerful work of three internationally acclaimed women photographers – Laura El-Tantawy, Gulshan Khan, and Lisl Ponger – to explore the complex realities of climate change, environmental justice and human survival.

Running from 13 June to 28 September, the free exhibition is presented by Hundred Heroines, the UK’s only museum and charity dedicated to women in photography. Spread across three sites in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, the Hundred Heroines Photo Museum, Miles Marling Field and the new outdoor Art Garden, Poisoned Futures? asks urgent questions about who benefits from sustainability and who pays the price.

Highlights include El-Tantawy’s Pang Ono, Pang Ono, which documents women’s struggles for clean water in Malawi; Khan’s Emalahleni and A Life in Plastic, revealing the social cost of coal and waste in South Africa; and Ponger’s unsettling Theater of War and Wild Places, which critique extinction, art tourism and exploitation.

Curator and Hundred Heroines founder Del Barrett explains: “For every act of so-called progress, there is a consequence unfolding somewhere else. Poisoned Futures? asks us to sit with that discomfort.”

Interactive elements such as artist talks, guided tours and a “Climate Confessions Booth” invite visitors to reflect on their own environmental impact — and take one ethical action this summer. More details at hundredheroines.org.