More than a century of coal mining has transformed the landscape of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, wiping out forests to make room for huge, open-cut mines. Photographer Erik Messori spent three months in the region, chronicling the human and environmental toll that Jharkhand’s coal industry has exacted.

Over the past seven years, Jane Fulton Alt has photographed controlled prairie burns in Lake Forest, Illinois. She discovered that although these burns are violent and destructive by nature, they are also regenerative. "We all come into the world and we all leave the world,” she said. “That’s just part of nature.”

Photographer Robert Harding Pittman has spent more than a decade exploring the global proliferation of urban sprawl. His collection of work “Anonymization” illustrates the idea that overdevelopment is damaging the planet. He says his work, in a sense, is his way of defending the places he loves.

JT Blatty first visited the coastal Louisiana marshlands to learn about her grandfather, whose body and boat were found in the bayous many years ago. She stayed to take photos and preserve the fishing culture – the hand-built shrimp trawlers, the lingo and how connected the people are to the water.