SA Photographer Captures 10 Years Of Floods In 'Drowning World'
South Africa-born photographer Gideon Mendel has photographed flood zones around the world for the past 10 years, but photographing recent hurricanes Harvey and Irma was entirely different, he says.
Speaking to HuffPost SA ahead of his forthcoming exhibition at Wits University Museum (WAM), Mendel said he realised that extreme wealth can be as vulnerable as extreme poverty.
"I photographed some very wealthy people in their houses during the latest floods, with their possessions wallowing in water. It was different for me because it began to take the narrative away from it always being black or brown people being the subject of natural disasters." Mendel says.
"People were devastated. Wealthy, and poor."
His enormously successful series of images called "Drowning World" has been featured in major publications such as "National Geographic", exhibited in museums around the world and even used on placards during climate change protests.
CIFOR