Interview: Ross Corsair, Photographer and Filmmaker

1.  Tell us about your journey in becoming a photographer and filmmaker.

I have had a wide-ranging past in terms of being involved in the making of films as I have been involved in low-budget indie productions where the cast and crew totaled 30 or even 10, and then have been on a few Hollywood productions where the crew alone was 180 people, a small army, with five different camera teams.

On one indie film production, I and a cast and crew of about thirty people, in the heat of a blazing summer in Arizona, all slept in bunk beds in one vast dorm room at a high school closed for the summer, with no fans and no AC, for the entire length of the production, about a month and one half. But the script and cast and the film itself were inspiring. I have also been on large Hollywood productions, out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, where one could often dine on Chilean Sea Bass or fresh lobster, just flown in. 

One documentary I worked on took eight years to complete, not too unusual in that world. It took eight years but had a very successful theatrical release, playing in movie theaters all over the country, and was in the top ten of many critics' lists at the end of that year. 

I only seriously took up Still Photography about ten years ago as, though I loved the collaboration and teamwork endemic to films, I wanted to push myself in another direction and try to learn another skill and one where I had all the agency.  

2.  Tell us about your “Come On Down. Climate change. Helping save the coastal wetlands” project and what inspired you to undertake this project?

Through my documentary work, I became connected to a producer, who, though he never lived there permanently, was very attached to New Orleans as being a very singular and unique city in the US.

“Come On Down,” was a no-budget short piece I did for him as a way to help New Orleans and Louisiana by showing potential visitors and volunteers a few of the ways they could help save this unique city and area from the effects of climate change and the loss of coastal protective wetlands.

3.  Tell us about your Niagara Falls project and what inspired you to undertake this project?

I was on the road for another documentary and, after completing it, was going to be within the vicinity of Niagara Falls, so I thought, I can’t not go there, I am within reach, I have to check it out.

As the Title suggests, this brief short was from one stop, maybe for an hour, at these majestic falls.

4. What are the impacts of climate change on Niagara Falls?  

I would not know. The loss of coastal wetlands in Louisiana has huge environmental impacts; if there are environmental impacts on Niagara Falls itself, I wouldn’t know about them. 

I know that the Hudson River itself seems to be much more impacted by all the pollutants General Electric dumped into it for decades, a subject of many lawsuits and controversy. The dispute is still ongoing, with General Electric saying they have cleaned up enough and the government (and environmental groups) saying enough had not been done.

The Howland Cultural Center and the musician and singer, Pete Seeger, both have long-time roots in Beacon. It was Pete Seeger who founded the Sloops Clearwater and the Woody Guthrie and was the first to champion the cause. It was an environmental emergency (back in 1969) that the Hudson River needed cleaning up. It was his foresight and efforts to get the then-cesspool that was the Hudson River to become as cleaned up as it is today. Both of these boats are still out in the Hudson River today, spreading the clean environment word, and there is a park in Beacon named after Pete and his wife, Toshi, today. 

Over the last several years, as a volunteer, I have been welcomed aboard both boats, and I contribute photographs to both of them to help to champion their environmental message.

Selva: The Robert Moses Niagara Hydroelectric Power Station is a hydroelectric power station in Lewiston, New York, near Niagara Falls. Owned and operated by the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the plant diverts water from the Niagara River above Niagara Falls and returns it to the river's lower portion near Lake Ontario. Hydropower generators do not directly emit carbon/air pollutants. However, dams, reservoirs, and the operation of hydroelectric generators can affect the environment.

When the Robert Moses power plant opened in 1961, it was the Western world's largest hydropower facility. A year later, in 1962, a 17-year legal battle began between Hudson Valley residents that launched the modern-day environmental movement in the United States when Consolidated Edison Company proposed building a giant hydroelectric plant on the Hudson River at Storm King Mountain near Cornwall.

This legal battle ended with the U.S. Court of Appeals determining that protecting natural resources was just as important as economic gain. The court prompted Congress to pass the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969, which requires an environmental impact study on all major projects needing an OK from the federal government.

5. As a photographer capturing the beauty of Hudson Valley, tell us about your Sunset Series that will be on exhibit at the Pink & Blue Art Show at Howland Cultural Center from Aug 10 to Sep 29, parallel to Climate Week NY and the United Nations General Assembly Meeting. How many sunsets in how many countries are part the Sunset Series?

Salton Sea is quite a unique place as it is an inland salt sea inside California that once was a water vacation hotspot. But, over the last last few decades, the salt sea has been drying up, so what was one a vacation wonderland, is now more a small colony of hardscrabble artists and off-the-grid folk, trying to hang on while the sea shrinks further and further. Towns that were built on the shore during the sea’s festive heyday are now half a mile away from the receding waters.

6. What attracted you to photographing the pollution in the skies so beautifully?

I don’t think about pollution when I am photographing a sunset; I just hope for a striking sunset. 

Some of my best sunsets are in very remote areas on the planet where air pollution would not be a factor: Sian Ka’an in Mexico, a remote fishing village in Southeast Asia, the Florida Keys, the Sahara Desert. 

7. Anything else you would like to add.

Many thanks to Selva Ozelli for putting this exhibition together at a spectacular venue, The Howland Cultural Center; I’m sure it all involves a ton of work. 

8.  How can people reach you?

Insta: @corsairross

Website (undergoing an update), but there is a working Contact Page:

rosscorsair.net