According to Senegalese poet Baba Dioum: “We conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught”. Colina Insurance Limited today announced the launch of One with Nature, its 2014 calendar focused on “teaching” the importance of environmental responsibility and protection of native species. The calendar features unique double exposure photography, blending human images with land and seascapes and native flora and fauna to illustrate our symbiotic link to one another. The calendar was created in support of the conservation and environmental education efforts of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) with which the insurance leader has had a long philanthropic relationship.
“Environmental responsibility is often described in terms of facts and figures that are not always so easy for everyone to grasp. But a picture paints a thousand words, and One with Nature reveals in vivid detail and full colour the beauty that abounds in The Bahamas and what we have been charged to protect for future generations,” says Colina’s Corporate Communications Officer Melanie Hutcheson. The uniqueness of One with Nature lies in the double exposure photography and photo editing techniques employed on the project. Principal artwork was provided by Colina’s in-house graphic artist and illustrator Theo McClain and local branding and advertising firm Karma Design. “You really have to read the photo captions on some of them to believe that what you’re seeing was not photographed in a single shot,” Hutcheson says.
In the March image, for example, The Bahamas’ thriving flamingo population’s success in helping to re-establish populations of flamingos throughout the Caribbean is illustrated by the fusion of the images of a young girl running at Montagu Beach with a flock of the majestic birds. However, the birds were actually photographed at the Inagua National Park, which safeguards over 287 square miles of flamingo habitat.
Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the calendar was also designed as a promotional tool for the BNT and lists the dates of its major fundraising events in order to boost interest, support and donations for its key initiatives. The project has also spawned a line of customised postcards which will go on sale at the BNT on Monday 9th December.
“The BNT was very pleased to be approached by Colina to participate in a conservation project about the importance of our native flora and fauna,” says BNT Deputy Executive Director Lynn Gape. “Colina has been a longtime supporter of the work of the BNT and we know that this calendar will help to raise awareness about the need to protect our native species and the ecosystems which provide them with food and shelter. The calendar is creative and the images produced truly send the message that it is important to be “one with nature”.
One with Nature is a publication of Colina’s Communications Department. Please contact Melanie Hutcheson, Corporate Communications Officer, at 396.2000 or Info@Colina.com if you have questions concerning the calendar or featured artwork.
