Alessandro Grassani’s work seeks to document the new, increasingly alarming reality of climate migration. To showcase this phenomenon, the photographer’s four-chapter project (shot in Mongolia, Bangladesh, Kenya and Haiti) gathers impactful images that tell the stories of men and women who have been forced by climate change to leave their ancestors’ land. As he travels through these countries, plagued by extreme environmental conditions – from harsh cold to drought, from devastating floods to unstoppable desertification –, Grassani’s lens captures places where the climate emergency has turned into an exhausting reality and an actual threat.
The pictures on display are a direct and undeniable proof of the time we live in and raise questions and concerns about the contradictions of our age. They show us people chasing the dream of a better life, only to tragically find, when they finally make it to the big city, that their fantasies are just that – fantasies. There, these men and women are confronted with a harsh, disappointing reality, as the logic of profit pushes them further to the edges of society, forcing them into the slums and the most deprived areas on the outskirts of the city.
This is where Grassani’s eyes – their ability to establish a dialogue, to look at others with empathy – come into play.
The photographer uses high-impact shots to create images that have a double meaning – on the one hand, he aesthetically celebrates the power of nature and the huge efforts that humankind has to make not to get completely crushed by it; on the other, he captures the transition of these places from natural paradises into existential prisons.
Back in 2015, in his encyclical letter Laudato si’, Pope Francis noted that “The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all”, and denounced the indifference of the world to the sufferings of people such as those portrayed in these pictures. In his more recent . In Pope Francis’ words, “We need to experience a conversion, or change of heart” in order to find a way to our common home.
Alessandro Grassani’s photographs inspire us to open our eyes to situations that are all too often neglected; most of all, they appeal to our sense of responsibility, urging us to care.
