Jordi Pizarro
The Story of a Dead Horse
Ghoramara is the name of an Island, in Bengali language Ghoramara minds “a dead horse”. Long time ago there were Bengali tigers in the island. They say that one of them killed the horse of a British settler and that it is the discovery of the animal’s dead body what gave the place its name.
The island is located at the Sundarbans, a labyrinth of islands that spans the mouth of the Ganges delta from eastern India to Bangladesh, this area is being engulfed by the sea and are disappearing.
In only four decades Ghoramara has lost more than 75 percent of its territory. Erosion and sea rising due to climate change are responsible for such a loss. While expert look for scientific explanations, the island’s five thousand inhabitants strive to protect what is left and get prepared for the worst. It is a race against time with little tools and expertise, done more with the heart than with preparedness in an effort to save their way of life in one of the world’s ecosystems most vulnerable to climate change, recent reports warn that the island is likely to disappear within the next twelve years.
‘A Story of a Dead Horse’ sets out to capture the “human face” of climate change. To document the impact of rising sea levels and how the ever increasing number of cyclones threaten the livelihoods of farmers and fisherman, as land is eroded and, at times, entire islands sink into the sea.
This essay was Shortlisted for the EPF 2016
Bio
Barcelona (Spain), 1985. Pizarro is a documentary photographer currently living in New Delhi, India. He’s mostly interested in personal long-term projects. The emphasis of his work is largely focused on current social and environmental concerns that affect different communities, most of them unadvertised by the big media. Jordi’s main goal is to aid and increase awareness of issues affecting people and their environments in the world we live in. He hopes that with his photographs to contribute in some small way towards creating a critical reflection of this world. Pizarro’s work has been published in many international magazines around the world including National Geographic Proof, New York Times, Time, Sunday Times, Internazionale and Le Monde among others. Also my work received different international photography awards like; two times “Picture of the year” (POYI) in portrait and nature category or the Scholarship of Ernesto Bazan among others.
A seriously good photo essay of an important story that affects all of us. This is global warming at the sharp end. I love the black and white photographs, particularly the panoramas, and can’t help going ‘technical’. They look ‘film-like’ but maybe too sharp to be film? Any details will be most useful, Jordi. Thanks.
Great website too; deciding what to show here, and what to leave out, must have been particularly difficult.
Mike.
Pretty interesting to see it on the opposite end of the global climate scale. A friend of mine in Barrow (where the people today voted to officially rename “Utkiagvik” – the original Iñupiaa name, posted two ice pics he took on this date in 1988 at the great gray whale rescue along with an ice and snow-free one from today. The October 12 ’88 temperature had been -20 F, -29 C. Today it was +37 F (2.8 C).
Bill, over here in the U.K. I read a news report that some of our mountains are in danger of being reclassified as hills, due to rising sea levels (i.e. they will be not as high above sea level as they once were). Such a story, of course, has little impact on peoples’ perceptions; certainly nothing like the catastrophe shown here, of salt water pouring onto precious farmland. I’m sure this story is of great interest to you.
Mike.
Mike R – Mountains reduced to hills – that’s an effect of a warming climate I had not heard of before. Yes, it is of great interest to me. In so many ways, Alaska feels like an entirely different place than it was when I first came home over 35 years ago. I do Jordi’s view from a low, tropical place. Funny thing – I don’t know how many are aware of this but the industrial community with the jet airport that serves the declining Prudhoe Bay oil fields is named, “Deadhorse.”
Really nice strong pictures. I’m not sure that this shows me the effects of climate change (it’s a very difficult thing to do) but i imagine some detailed captions would help. I really think it’s the most important story with effects that will last many generations.
hharry, couldn’t agree more. I always like to see captions (proper captions that add to one’s understanding, not one caption used for every photograph in a essay) and agree that the subject matter is of importance to everyone. One of the major events of our time.
Mike.
hharry, you’re right, captions are needed here. There’s no way that someone can tell the sea is rising in these pictures without the photographer pointing this out in captions. Photography captures the dramatic very well, but trying to capture the importance of something that appears utterly mundane is very difficult; in this situation, text is needed to explain what is happening.