High and Dry: A Human Face of Climate Change
Peruvians living high up in the Andes may not know the phrase, "climate change," but they're worried about its effects.
Juliana Pacco Pacco can鈥檛 read or write. She has no television. For transportation, she uses a llama. Home is on a mountain thousands of feet high in the Peruvian Andes. Pacco Pacco has never heard of 鈥渃limate change鈥濃攜et she can describe a few of its symptoms. 鈥淚t rains and snows at unexpected times,鈥 she told photographers Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer, through a translator. 鈥淭he animals don鈥檛 have much fodder to eat and are more prone to illness.鈥 Temperatures are in fact rising in Peru鈥檚 mountains and precipitation patterns changing. Farmers have moved their potato fields to higher, cooler areas to escape heat-related diseases. Now they have reached rock, with no recourse.
Pacco Pacco is just one voice, and visage, out of many appearing in The Human Face of Climate Change (Hatje Cantz Verlag), Braschler鈥檚 and Fischer鈥檚 most recent portrait project. Its international subjects worry about the effects, current and potential, of global warming鈥攁 hunter in Mali endures drought, for example, while a teenager in Kiribati fears inundation.
The photographer team鈥檚 idea grew out of a project done in China. 鈥淲e saw what industrialization can do to nature,鈥 says Fischer. They researched extensively and worked with scientists, nonprofit groups, and locals to understand climate change and arrange to meet people affected by it. 鈥淲e wanted to show [each person] with dignity,鈥 says Fischer. Ironically, an Alaskan Inuit suggested to the photographers that city dwellers used to modern conveniences could have the hardest time adapting in the future鈥攕haping a lifestyle around nature鈥檚 offerings is hardly routine. True or not, says Fischer, 鈥淓verybody has a next generation to think of.鈥SPECIFICATIONS
Photographers: Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer
Camera: Hasselblad 503CW
Lens: 80mm
Exposure: f11.5 at 1/125; Profoto B2 flash system