Gideon Mendel
I began working as a photographer in South Africa in 1984, during the darkest days of apartheid. This experience shaped my belief that photography can be both art and visual activism.
Over time I have developed long-term projects that sit between documentary, art, and activism. My aim is to challenge viewers, translating global issues into images that may provoke emotional response and practical action.
In my Drowning World and Burning World series, I work with flooded and scorched landscapes, using precise, often unsettling compositions to question our sense of stability. Video has increasingly become part of this practice in response to the climate emergency.
Across Flooding and Fire, the Submerged Portraits and Portraits in Ashes series show people framed by devastated environments. They meet the camera with dignity and resilience. Through this repeated portraiture, I am building a typology of climate change.
Drowning World: Amjad Ali Laghari. 2022, Goth Bawal Khan Village, Sindh Province. Pakistan.
Amjad Ali Laghari at the mosque in his village of Goth Bawel Khan in Sindh Province, Pakistan. In September and October 2022 this region was devastated by the worst floods in living memory, leaving millions of people homeless. Two months after the initial flooding, water levels remained high, still filling people’s homes. Amjad Ali had remained in his village to guard what was left of his home, while his family and most of the residents of the village were living in tent camps some distance away. This building is our village mosque. We rescued many of our Holy Books from here, which were floating in the water. This situation is very difficult. With our village underwater, everything we worked so hard to build is destroyed. We cannot walk due to the floodwater. Our village has drowned.
Drowning World: The Drilo family, 2025. Maisulao Village, Bulacan Province, The Philippines.
The Drilo family (Abvin, Febelyn, Abvin Junior, Allen, and Alden) in their flooded home in Maisulao village which had been repeatedly flooded by a series of typhoons in the second half of 2025. The Philippines is one of the countries most at risk of the climate emergency due to its low-lying island geography. With sea temperatures rising, the country deals with increasingly frequent and intense typhoons, rising sea-levels that threaten coastal communities, and changing rainfall patterns that disrupt agriculture. \This flooding is so difficult with three small children because we have to continue living in our home even when it’s full of floodwater. If the children fall into the water, we just lift them up. We raise our beds to sleep. The water was up to chest-high last week. This area used to be all farmland with plants, but now its gone.
Drowning World: Abhunu Azibageyam, 2022, Ogbia, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
Abhunu Azibageyam in her flooded home in Otuaba. In September and October 2022 Nigeria experienced its worst floods ever recorded. Millions of people were displaced and hundreds were killed. This was in a year with so many extreme weather events around the world that were clearly linked to climate change. We heard that a flood was expected but we had no idea that it would be as big as this. When the flooding came we couldn’t save anything except for our lives. I saw it gradually come into the corners of my house and then suddenly it took over the entire environment. As you can see my home is under water and I sleep by the roadside. It has affected me so much. All my possessions and our farm produce are damaged or destroyed. We are suffering by God’s grace. The magnitude is unbearable.
Drowning World: Eruabai Ase, 2022, Otuaba, Ogbia Municipality, Bayelsa State Nigeria.
Eruabai Ase at her flooded home in Otuaba. In September and October 2022 Nigeria experienced its worst floods ever recorded. Millions of people were displaced and hundreds were killed. It was the 26th September and just like that the water started coming. There was an announcement on the radio that flooding was coming. But we didn’t anticipate the magnitude. We thought the 2012 floods were the worst but the level is much higher this time. We have a lot of worries with the floodwater here because there is nowhere to sleep and the water came with sickness. With so many mosquitoes malaria is here. With the strong rain every day and the cold many people are ill, including my siblings. I am living on the top level of the incomplete building opposite. We have to use this contaminated water for washing and drinking.