AD4802 Photo-Story// Research 10: Gideon Mendel

A Picture of What Is to Come: Our Drowning World

https://www.lensculture.com/articles/gideon-mendel-a-picture-of-what-is-to-come-our-drowning-world

‘A globally-minded “struggle photographer” takes on the most pressing issue of our day—climate change—in this stirring installation of portraits, landscapes and found photographs’

This a series by Gideon Mendel. The photo story has a purpose, which is to show the effects of climate change and global warming. He doesn’t present this idea in an obvious form, but decided to document the flooding. In an interview he was asked the question of what triggered the photo series, in which he replied, ‘My intention was to make work which would have an impact. And when you want to have an impact, you need to be open to different ways of doing that.’ This is a theme I would like to present in my work. I feel as if I similarly want to bring light to a significant event in history and much like Mendel, want to take an alternative approach to this.

Each image is strong enough to be a stand alone shot, but as a series they become a story. The series flows through the way they have been shot. Each image shows the water damage and often shows a reflection of the subject, linking them all. They also tend to show colours that are of a soft tone, which is enhanced by the natural lighting, making the whole image almost calming, symbolic to the theme of water but contradictive to the story itself which works really well with the outcome of the series.

Mendel has a way of capturing portraits that makes the viewer almost feel like they are part of the scene. The strong eye contact between the subjects and the camera, which later becomes the viewers is harrowing and brings the image to life. The whole series works really well in portraying a message and telling a narrative, this is something I inspire to do in my work and plan on using this similar in my work. Not only are these outcomes inspirational to me, but the whole process behind them and the planning. So far in my project I have only planned a little amount and feel as if I need to plan more and have more structure to my work in order to progress further.