‘After Us the Deluge’ captures images of a sinking world

Kadir-en Lohuizen’s photo book, After Us the Deluge: The Human Ondories of Rising Sea Levels, the climate crisis is basically a water crisis. With me melting ice helmets Greenlandic as catalyst for rising water, the aftermath of destruction, along with the pleasure of governments, leaves people in situations where they cannot live.

People from countries like Panama, Bangladesh and Kiribati are watching the sea rise to the seas at their homes. The Netherlands and the United States, although well protected in some areas, remain experienced amazing storm surges near coastal cities, and are expected to be large parts of Jakarta, Indonesia Submerged by 2050. “When we talk about the climate crisis, we always seem to think it wasn’t going to be as bad as we anticipated,” Lohuizen says. “It’s weird not to act, even though we know it.”

Lohuizen’s goal is to go beyond the publication of a regular photo book in the hopes of reaching a wider audience. Parts of the effects that water regions have on the six regions are the result of a mix of local politicians, scientists, activists and journalists. Although the accompanying photographs show the dreadful consequences of human decisions, Henk Ovink, the special envoy for international water affairs in the Netherlands, also depicts what he calls the “fine line between the power of nature and the hope of man.”

The documentation of Lohuizen’s human experiences and the struggle between people and nature predominates. In a photo taken at Kiribati’s Tebike Nikoora, a woman is standing outside, watching the sea water overflow dozens of sandbags. In a picture taken from Jakarta, people walk through the flood waters of their knees after a pile of rubbish has collapsed.

A dramatic and suggestive picture of dangerous ocean currents and floods was obtained based on the tide table Lohuizen used to predict high tides and low tides. Lohuiz said shooting at high tide would be the best way for viewers to imagine the future severity of water surges in coastal cities. “If you can show what’s already happening at high tide, you don’t have to be a very wild fantasy to realize what would happen if it were a meter, two or three meters above sea level,” he says.

He relied on Lohuiz drones, as well as cameras on the project that began with the project, to show the fragility of coastal cities. “It was a very important component to have these antennas – and specifically for the Netherlands – because then you can see, in some pictures, how close we are to the sea,” he says.

He started this project in Lohuiz, Utrecht, in 2011 while working on a migration project in the Americas. He has also launched projects on the world’s rivers and the diamond industry.

While aerial shots show the relationship between rising water and coastal cities, others show attempts by residents to leave those places. In Bangladesh, boats fill the main river port of Sadarghat, the capital of Dhaka, carrying people hoping to relocate from the delta. A similar situation occurs in Guna Yalan, an indigenous province of Panama, where Lohuizen catches a woman at the site of the construction of her new home. It is a normal and debatable idea to relocate communities that are documented in nearly half of the countries where Lohuizen took photographs. “If people have to move, where do they go?” he asks. “I think you have enough space in the US, but in countries like Bangladesh, the Netherlands or Indonesia we don’t even have space to move people.”