September 16, 2021
All of us at Cultures of Resistance Films are thrilled to see the release of photographer Vlad Sokhin’s stunning book of photographs, Warm Waters, which documents the devastating effects of global warming from Northern Alaska to the remote outposts of New Zealand.
Our film WANTOKS: dance of resilience in Melanesia (2019) was accompanied by a touring photography exhibition of Vlad Sokhin’s images, illuminating the impact of climate change in Oceania. We were proud to collaborate on the exhibition as it visited Finland that year and then Greece in early 2020. The photos continue to tour, and they will soon be coming to Romania.
We encourage you to check out the announcement below and learn more about Vlad’s important work!
in solidarity,
iara lee – founder/ director
Warm Waters is a long-term photographic project, investigating the effects of climate change on the nature and people of communities living in the Pacific and Arctic regions. Since 2013, Vlad Sokhin has traveled from the northernmost tip of the United States in Point Barrow, Alaska, to the remote outposts of New Zealand, covering 18 countries and territories, to collect visual evidence of the consequences of the climate crisis.
Many scientists and researchers agree today that climate change is caused not only by natural events but also by increased human activity. The more we have overloaded nature, the more disbalanced it has become. Warm Waters opens a window onto tiny islands, remote coastal villages and their inhabitants who experience firsthand the harsh impact of a changing climate, like three super cyclones that hit Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Fiji, Northern Mariana Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia in 2015-2016. It also shows how coastal erosion and permafrost melting ruins indigenous towns and villages in Alaska and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.
“For many people in the Pacific, ‘climate change’ is not just a catchphrase, it is a reality. From rising sea levels, super cyclones, weather pattern changes, and coastal erosion to permafrost thawing, coral bleaching, deforestation, animal migration pattern changes, and disrupted hunting and fishing, the sustainable ways of life for many areas of the Pacific, the largest region on our planet, are in great danger.” —Vlad Sokhin
The photographs in this book are deliberately arranged by tonal narrative, not geography. You may see an image of boat captains drinking vodka during a storm in the Russian Far East beside an image of a sinking cemetery from the Marshall Islands. This causes the compartmentalisation of ‘region’ and ‘territory’ to disappear and highlights the understanding that climate change is global. No matter where you are, you can and will likely be affected. Images are a universal language and so the photographs themselves lead the narrative. Journalistic captions can be found at the end of the book.
Sokhin’s journey include Alaska (USA), Kamchatka and Commander Islands (Russia), Northern Mariana Islands, Guam (USA), Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tokelau (New Zealand), and Niue.
“As you journey through ‘Warm Waters’, look not just through the lens of the photographer, but also through the eyes of those who live and experience climate crisis on a daily basis. This is a vehicle for meeting the corners of the planet and the people who live there. These are our neighbours.” —Vlad Sokhin
Vlad Sokhin’s superb book, Warm Waters, the outcome of years and years of hard work, is on purpose only produced as an eBook. It has much less impact on the environment than a printed book: no printing, no binding, no paper, no transport! It is thus also much cheaper to buy than our top quality printed books are. In doing so we hope to reach a bigger audience. The extremely important subject of the book needs to be seen all over the world by the biggest audience possible. We hope this goal will be reached. It is a completely new strategy for us, being a high end, niche market art book publishing house.
Vlad Sokhin (Russia/ Portugal) is an award-winning documentary photographer whose work focuses on social, cultural, environmental, health and human rights issues around the world, including post-conflict and natural disaster zones. Sokhin’s work has been exhibited and published internationally, including at Visa Pour L’Image and Head On photo festivals and in National Geographic, BBC World Service, The Guardian, GEO, The Atlantic, Stern, Le Monde, Esquire, Sydney Morning Herald, Marie Claire, amongst others. For over a decade, he has been collaborating with a large number of United Nations agencies and international NGOs.
He is based in Central Africa and represented internationally by the British photo agency Panos Pictures.
Special thanks go to Magnum Foundation, Cultures of Resistance, Takie Dela, UNICEF Pacific, UNDP, Oxfam Australia, ChildFund Australia, WaterAid UK.
ISBN 9789053309490
Design: Victor Levie, Levievandermeer
320 pages with 174 photographs
September 2021
€12