Working with photomontage, Kennard uses the book form to tell stories of global destruction and resistance. Comprising seven image-based chapters, ‘@earth’ narrates a sense of disempowerment created by contemporary image saturation and advocates active involvement in political events.
In Kennard’s research and critique of the image in relation to society, politics and injustice, @earth presents a visual manifestation of the eco-crisis, human rights abuses and the arms race.
Following Kennard’s methodology, a photograph is envisaged as a word, a photomontage as a sentence and a sequence of photomontages as a visual essay.
From a formal perspective, the size, price, and content of the book reflect and illustrate Kennard’s extensive research into making political imagery available to a general, non-specialist audience. Combining the global platform of the Web with digital photography and the political cartoon, @earth serves as an original contribution to the genre of the visual book whilst maintaining a readable narrative of fierce political content. Art critic John Berger writes: ‘Eschewing words, it [@ earth] insists on not being forgotten. He [Kennard] is a master of the medium of photomontage.’
An exhibition titled ‘At Earth’, held at Raven Row, London (2011) presented the originals of the works included in the book and was accompanied by three special events and talks relating to art and politics, including a dialogue between Kennard and curator and critic Guy Brett, and a conversation with former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone and writer and activist, Jan Woolf. @earth was commissioned by Tate Publishing, and Tate Shots produced a film of Kennard in his studio discussing the making of the book, which is available on the Tate website. A selection of original photomontages from the book was also shown in a solo exhibition titled ‘Images of Resistance’ at Fifty24MX, Mexico City (2013).