On 10th October Gideon Mendel talked at the Harrow Campus. It was extremely interesting and hugely relevant to my theme for my major project: environmental issues. Mendel talked about his 11-year project, ‘Drowning World’ and a specific series ‘Submerged Portraits’.
This project was Mendel’s attempt to share the vulnerability of climate change. He believes that water unites everyone in solidarity, therefore documenting floods around the world was the perfect subject.
Everyone in the photographs, Mendel got to know their story. In this specific image, when he tried giving the woman some money to say thank you and good luck, she rejected him and said “I don’t want your money, I want you to show the world what has happened to me.”
When displaying the submerged portraits, Mendel didn’t know how to put them in order, whether it be class, gender, ethnicity ect. He then decided on to put them in order of the water going down.
Mendel mainly worked on film, however, in the last year he transitioned to digital as it was easier and more reliable for the projects he was doing.
The other series are Floodlines and Watermarks. Floodlines is a more abstract view of the line of water moving through space. Mendel stated that “A flooded environment is very compelling, there’s an urge, it’s a very rich environment to be working in.”
Watermarks is a series made from discovered photographs in the flooded areas that Mendel visited.
