photo: © Nick Brandt - Serafina and Keanan on bed, Fiji, 2023
SINK/RISE is the third chapter of The Day May Break, an ongoing global series from photographer Nick Brandt that portrays people and animals affected by environmental degradation and destruction.
This third chapter focuses on South Pacific islanders affected by rising sea levels due to climate change.
The locals in these photos, photographed underwater in the ocean off the coast of the Fiji Islands, are representatives of the many people whose homes, land and livelihoods will be lost in the coming decades as the waters rise.
Everything is underwater captured with the camera.
"Faced with a seemingly impossible task, Nick Brandt has created a profoundly original body of work, one that takes an entirely new approach to climate-conscious photography represents....
Although they are several meters below the surface, the subjects of Brandt's mesmerizing photographs do not float or swim. Incredibly, they sit on benches, stand on chairs, use seesaws and pose in ways they would on land. The effect is otherworldly, as if the known laws of nature have become stuck in this strange, liminal zone between land and sea.
"...as if the known laws of nature have become stuck in this strange, liminal zone between land and sea..."
In the photos in this series, it seems as if the subjects' facial expressions will change like water. Stoicism becomes resignation. Frustration becomes determination. In their pensive faces we can read tenderness, sadness and perseverance. As intimate and sparse as these portraits are, the effect is broad.
Despite the surreal, semi-theatrical environment in which these portraits take place, Brandt's images are direct, uncluttered and free of distractions. This combination of ambitious imagination and exquisite restraint is a hallmark of Brandt's work rarely seen elsewhere.
"With the portraits, Brandt gives us an important means to consider what we all have to lose."
The photos of SINK/RISE are remarkable in their ability to be simultaneously approachable and enigmatic, to be political and inclusive. They invite us to linger, to look closer and to go deeper. With each return there is something new to discover - in the images or in ourselves.
Including the portraits SINK/RISE Brandt gives us an important tool to consider what we all have to lose.” ~ Zoe Lescaze, from the foreword of SINK/RISE, author of Paleoart: Visions of the Prehistoric Past
Nick Brandt (*1964, London) studied painting and film at St. Martin's School of Art in London. In 1992 he moved to California, where he still lives. Since 2001, he has been documenting the devastating impact humanity has had on the natural world and, as a result, on people themselves.
Chapter one of his groundbreaking series The Day May Break featured photos taken in Zimbabwe and Kenya in late 2020. Chapter two was shot in Bolivia in 2022. In the third chapter, Brandt introduces color to the series, emphasizing the all-encompassing impact of water. In Chapter Four shows Syrian refugee families in rural areas who currently live there and whose lives have been seriously affected by the intense drought.
SINK / RISE, The Day May Break, Chapter three -Nick Brandt
Pages: 120
Price: €58.00
Publisher: Hatje Cantz
