HARD RAIN BECKONS A HUMAN SOLUTION

For four decades and more musician and poet Bob Dylan has been pricking at the collective consciousness of humanity telling all that "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall." And while scientists and environmental groups warn that planet Earth - home to almost seven billion Earthlings - is getting hot with a fever, acclaimed editorial photographer Mark Edwards has illustrated Dylan's lyrics with some compelling and deeply compassionate images.

Critics have acclaimed the Edwards/Dylan partnership as a brilliant collaboration of artistic expression that brings together words with images while striking home the clear message that the problems on Earth involving human beings can only be solved by the core cause - humanity.

The Hard Rain Exhibition was open for public viewing at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The exhibition was first launched at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK in 2006 to huge public and critical acclaim, attracting the support and endorsement of political and environmental leaders across the world.

'I've walked and I've crawled on 6 crooked highways'
Mark Edwards/Still Pictures

'I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow'
Mark Edwards/Still Pictures

'Where the pellets of poisons are flooding their water'
Mark Edwards/Still Pictures

               'I saw a room full of men and their hammers a-bleedin'
               Mark Edwards/Still Picturesat

HARD RAIN VISITOR COMMENTS

Jesus... When you have seen this exhibition, life stops for a moment. I don't know how people can go on like this. I listened to the song as well. It was so moving. Even at the age of twelve, I find it hard to comprehend this. I cried over it.
Meera Patel, UK

The Government is playing its part and I hope that Hard Rain encourages others to do so too.
Tony Blair MP, former Prime Minister of Great Britain

I walked along the line of posters, words piled on words, image on image. I knew the lyrics; Dylan was part of the soundtrack of my life, yet somehow the apocalyptic vision was just that, a warning rather than a description. Suddenly this was a reality. Now each line of the song was real and by the time I reached the end there were silent tears running down my face. We must act - as individuals and collectively. Regret what we have done and what we have failed to do. Take action and get angry at those who don't. Can I tell my grandchildren that I knew but did nothing?
Geoff Brace, Ipswich

A few weeks ago my girlfriend told me about a class trip from her school to the Eden Project. The teachers were all back at the bus and getting increasingly anxious that the children had not returned. It turned out that they had not been able to draw themselves away from the Hard Rain display - so your message is getting out to the people that will make the change. I left with a copy of the book and a constant reminder of what is often overlooked in society today, vowing to become much more aware of what difference each of us can make.
Paul Hassall, Ipswich

I joined a procession of visitors, quiet and visibly moved by the photographs and words. If we each could spend just one minute of one day doing something to make a difference, then collectively, what a difference we could make.
Arlene Harris, Rossendale, Lancashire

Putting hard-hitting and often disturbing visual imagery to Bob Dylan's lyrics makes a powerful call for action, and I congratulate you.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme

This is a moving and thought-provoking book, which illustrates, through the use of powerful images, the undeniable ongoing relevance of Dylan's lyrics. Scientists agree that we now have less than ten years to make the changes that will prevent the earth's temperature entering its danger zone - the point of no return. Politicians and individuals must stop passing the buck and be part of the solution rather than the problem. A zero carbon future is a happy, healthy, equitable future, so what are we waiting for? Another world is possible, and hopefully Hard Rain will bring this message to a new audience that will start taking action.
Caroline Lucas MEP, Principal Speaker, UK Green Party

HARD RAIN BOOK

Hard Rain is a startlingly original exploration of the issues that are defining
the 21st century - climate change, habitat loss, poverty and human rights.

This expanded edition includes a new photo essay by Mark Edwards and four new chapters:

   "No Time for Denial" by Jonathon Porritt

   "Hard Choices" by Robert May

   "Beware the Climate Fixers" by John Elkington and Geoff Lye

   "Changing Consciousness" by David Bohm.

HARD RAIN READER COMMENTS

Your book is a piece of sustained beauty. I treasure it.
Arundhati Roy

Hard Rain is magnificent. The photographs illustrate Dylan's words almost uncannily. It is as if Dylan had taken them himself.
Raymond Briggs

Here is our world as for most of humanity it has become, and as the world's leaders would rather not acknowledge. It is brought to us through a poem that cuts as poetry must through the facts to the meaning of things, and by photographs that capture the passing scene in one sharp permanent image - and also the emotion of it, and the reasons that lie behind it. We doubtless need statistics and learned analyses if we are to get to grips with the world but most of all we need to give a damn, and here we can see, if we take just a few minutes, why we should. This is the power of art.
Colin Tudge

It's a grim picture, but Hard Rain also inspires hope. It gives readers a sense of purpose and an almost palpable desire to do something positive, something that will make a difference.
Calvin Jones, Cork Evening Echo

Many have connected with Dylan's poetic and provocative prose, but perhaps none so significantly as Mark Edwards. Dylan's lyrics have been labelled as inscrutable over the years, but here they are dramatically and poignantly brought to life.
Theo Hooper, the Big Issue

Each day I avert my eyes and steer my thoughts away from the inevitable outcome.
I ignore the headlong rush, which sweeps us all along, and bury my head in silence and in shame. The monumental extent of that which brings about our end has seemed unassailable. Increasingly I have been unable to engage. Everywhere I look I see my own participation in this race to, and over, the precipice. This book inspires me to try and stand again. To know that others share this bleakest outlook brings a ray of hope. At first I thought that Dylan's lines should not be illustrated. I was wrong.
Christy Moore

HARD RAIN SLIDESHOW

The Hard Rain slideshow is a personal account of the environmental journey Mark Edwards embarked on in 1969. His presentation explores the issues that are defining this century. It includes all the pictures from the exhibition together with an additional 150 unforgettable images from around the world. It lasts 60 minutes.

As well as being shown to public audiences around the world, the Hard Rain slideshow has been presented to the National Assembly in Cuba, the parliaments of Belgium, Scotland and Lithuania, to universities, schools, environmental meetings and to business leaders. A recent presentation was to IPCC scientists at the parliament building in Berlin.

VIEWERS RESPONSE TO THE HARD RAIN SLIDESHOW

Like many people I found Hard Rain overwhelming. It stopped me in my tracks. A sense of purposeful commitment to change and to facing up to the challenges of the future was restored by Mark Edwards' beautifully poignant slideshow. Don't miss it!
Stephen Blackmore FRSE, Regius Keeper, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

I saw An inconvenient Truth last night, and can honestly say that I think Hard Rain is ten times better. It highlights the earth's plight so much more succinctly, emotionally and artistically. Your presentation left a tear in my eye, Al Gore's left
a question mark...
Mel Trievnor, London

Mark is one of the most effective photographers in the world. In his slide presentation he showed us that he has two voices: the "voice" of his images and the "voice" of his lecturing. With superb timing and with a wonderful way of linking pictures and words he revealed things that have been invisible to us. There are a few others who have such a thorough grasp of issues of the environment, development and new approaches to business practice. For 1,000 people Mark's lecture was a truly memorable occasion.
Herbert Giradet, Chairman, Schumacher Society, London

Mark has brought us an extraordinary account of our environmental crisis. Hard Rain is electrifying - the most moving slide presentation I have ever seen. He transported his audience from the Sheraton Ballroom in Perth, Australia to facets of a world seldom seen by one individual. We travelled with him and went away transformed in our understanding. His commentary forces us to ask fundamental and unexpected questions about ourselves and how we live. An extraordinary experience.
Philip Noyce, Director, United Nations Forum

Thank you for your impressive Hard Rain presentation for the IPCC scientists in Berlin. I enjoyed... is this the right word? Somehow, yes. Although the pictures are hard-hitting and disturbing they gave me something that had been missing from the conference. I felt frustrated by all the dry scientific statements - does it make sense to go over the same ground again and again? Your pictures and the lyric by Bob Dylan reminded me forcefully of the urgent need to act "in favour of the future" and that we must first do so in our own lives.
Watching you give the presentation was like watching a conductor. I was astonished at how deeply I was touched and involved by the careful and intelligent combination of words, music and pictures. You involved all our senses in your artwork. I must confess that I started to weep after two or three pictures. At first I tried to stop, but after some moments I saw many people around me - experienced scientists, tough journalists, especially men - who had to take off their glasses; and I am convinced that your pictures meant as much to many of them as to me. Thank you for your work, for attending the conference, and for documenting in that wonderful way what is happening in human society and what is going on in the world.
Sonja Waldhausen, Research Scientist, Berlin

I have worked closely with Mark since we first met at the Earth Summit in 1992. I have also been closely involved in the Hard Rain project pretty much from the start, as a friend and professional colleague. I have seen Mark present it on at least 10 occasions over the years. It is one of the most powerful presentations I have ever seen - and it has a huge impact on audiences. He forces them to dig deep into their own personal, emotional responses to the state of the world and its people, an experience which can often be uncomfortable as well as very challenging. Over the last 18 months, Mark has developed the presentation to bring forward a positive counterbalance to what can otherwise leave a very downbeat assessment to our prospects for the future. This has made a big difference. Through Forum for the Future's "Reconnections" course (to which Mark is a regular contributor), I have gathered many different testimonies as to the impact of Hard Rain, and it has become a critical ingredient in the overall success of that initiative.
Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director, Forum for the Future

ABOUT MARK EDWARDS

Mark Edwards is one of the most widely published editorial photographers in the world. His pictures from more than 150 countries illustrate environmental and development problems and the many positive things people are doing about them. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) added his name to the prestigious Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1990, and the Royal Geographic Society awarded him the Cherry Kearton Medal at the Earth Summit in 1992. In 1985 he founded Still Pictures, the world's leading photo agency specialising in the environment, social issues and nature. Over 1,000 photographers around the world supply the agency with pictures and photo features. HIs work is in the collections of private collectors and museums in Europe and America. He has produced two major books and exhibition projects. Focus on Your World is a permanent display of 400 large prints at Heathrow Airport. Over 5 million travellers have seen these images from the UNEP archive. It has been judged the most popular attraction at the airport.

PROJECT PARTNERS

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the BBC Love Earth website, Columbia Records (Bob Dylan's label) and Still Pictures photo agency are Hard Rain Project partners.

ECO-CARE AWARDS

Mark Edwards and Bob Dylan have been jointly nominated for the annual Earth Eco-Care Awards that will be announced this year in September by the Daily Planet Media Group and the Earth Charter Foundation.