Photographer Gideon Mendel has spent the past 11 years documenting flood ravaged cities around the world.
First Coast News spoke to the artist about his exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, which includes portraits of victims of Irma, and is on display until Dec. 9.
The following is a portion of that discussion:
My name is Gideon Mendel. I’m a photographer and artist, and I’ve been working on this project “Drowning World” for the last 11 years.
This project encompasses 30 different countries.
This project for me is very much about finding a way to make making a statement about climate change and global warming.
It’s somewhere on the border area of art and activism.
What you see in the series of submerged portraits is a moment of connection between us.
What I offer is a kind of deep witnessing of what’s happened, to them and people really do appreciate that I think.
I find myself very drawn to keep on revisiting floods -- something about the light and the color, and the way reality is reversed -- with reflections where there shouldn't be reflections.
A lot of my work shows things that are quite terrible but photographed in a quite aesthetic and beautiful way.
For me, it’s a way to draw people in, and engage people.
if you are trying to say something and tell a story, you want people to actually look at the images and be drawn to them.
When I did travel to Jacksonville last year, I got here a little bit late. The day before everyone was flooded, but by the time I got here, most of the water had receded. Which is why I headed out to Middleburg.
I was lucky enough to encounter Terrence McKeen and his mother, Gloria.
Terrence comes across as quite a tough guy at first, and we walked into his house, and he just burst into tears. Everything was completely ravaged.
There was something quite profound about sharing that moment with him. Witnessing the utter anguish of seeing what the floodwater had done to them.
I think it’s one of the most powerful pictures I’ve made in my life. That’s why I’m so pleased with this exhibition. I think its great to bring the work back to the places where it’s made.