Lux Vol. 05

He documented climate change... when others were just talking about it

The assignment was to take photos for a book about the daily lives of children in Malawi for Danish Red Cross. Two years earlier, in 2003, photographer Jakob Dall had been on a similar job in Uganda. The only difference between the jobs, it seemed, was location. Or so he thought...

This time, what Jakob witnessed was the impact of climate change on the lives of his subjects. It was no longer about the quality of life from day to day, but about survival - for the children and for their families.

“It should have been raining when I visited. But, at the time, there was a drought so bad that the family I followed was in desperate search of food. The only meat they had was from mice which the children managed to chase out of holes in the ground. They would cut the throat of the mice with a blade of grass. They didn’t even bring a knife. Their living conditions touched me deeply,” says Jakob Dall.

Climate change wasn’t a new topic by 2005. It was talked about and written about with the assumption that the problem would affect us some time in the future.

“But the future was already here. Climate change existed in real time for the people I met. They were already suffering the consequences.”

Jakob Dall grew up in Rold Skov (Rold Forest) in Northern Jutland with parents who subscribed to National Geographic. He developed a close connection to nature and animals at that time, so much so that he began to photograph what he loved from a very young age.

After graduating as a photo journalist from the Danish School of Journalism in 1998, Jakob started working for the photo group “Fotogruppen 2. Maj”. One of his first assignments was to travel to Kosovo for Danish Red Cross for which he freelances regularly to this day. He has also worked for Danish newspapers Berlingske and Information.

But it was the job in Malawi that would form his career. Once he returned home, Jakob felt compelled to learn more about climate change and its impact on people. Since then, he has worked persistently to document how climate change influences people’s living conditions and in many cases completely destroys their livelihoods.

A man with a mission

Starting with the first trip to Malawi and through the years leading up to the climate summit COP 15 (held in Copenhagen in November 2015), Jakob has traveled the world to document climate change for an exhibition project known as ‘Climate Change Documentary’. This body of work has so far been represented by five large exhibitions in Denmark and as an 120-picture slideshow. The slideshow, in particular, was positioned at COP15 to make an impact. Shown on a big screen at Bella Center’s exhibition hall, the slideshow rolled in a space where decision makers would meet during their breaks.

”Many of the participants were touched by what they saw. Several of them knew the areas from before they were affected by climate change, and for me it was important to get the message across, that the changes were already heavily impacting vulnerable communities,” says Jakob Dall.

The photographer feels obliged to make others aware of the problems.

”With my photos, I can hopefully contribute by aiming the spotlight on the problems that affect local communities around the world. When I travel and work for different organisations, I see the initiatives they put to work using my photos for campaigns to collect money. Through that, I’m contributing to help.”

After almost 15 years of focusing on climate change and traveling to the areas affected by it, Jakob Dall freely admits that he has become a man with a mission.

”I have a great passion for showing what climate change entails and at some point it has become a mission because I want to help make a difference. I read a lot of international news that is never covered by Danish media and every time, I feel the urge to spread that news. That’s also why I often travel to other places than where a disaster has just struck and already gets media attention. I’m trying to portray the quiet disasters where, for instance, people’s vital crops have been reduced to a tenth because of drought or destroyed by floods and their consequences. If I can give the affected a voice I have accomplished something,” says the climate photographer.

Even the camels had succumbed

On his travels, Jakob has witnessed countless forms of distress and need resulting from climate change. Still, some experiences have left a deeper impact on him than others. One experience that has made a lasting impression is a trip to both Kenya and the Horn of Africa in 2011. The purpose of the trip was to show how climate change has impacted populations in bordering areas in the northeast towards Somalia and in the northwest towards Uganda where an entire region was affected by drought.

Yet, he was not prepared for what he saw. By the end of a twelve hour drive, almost all life had disappeared before his eyes. Passing by one village after next, the landscape showed itself to e more and more dry, with animals - cows and giraffes, laying dead by the roadside. Even hardy camels were the victims to the drought.

”The area had turned into a desert where in some places the only thing people had to eat were roots and very bitter fruits that would otherwise never be considered edible. The desperation in these people lining up to have their yellow water jugs filled was so great that a man had to keep the line in check with a long stick. Meanwhile, the few camels still alive proved to be the only valuables these people had left to sell, even though they were worth almost nothing on the market. One buyer told me, he couldn’t be sure if the camels would even be alive by the time he returned to his village,” says Jakob Dall.

He adds, “With just a bit of technology and money, solar- driven pump stations served to help, but they were often located in dangerous areas given their proximity to bordering Somalia where Al-Shabaab held domain. The most devastated areas did receive relief from international organizations, but the relief workers had before them a huge and logistically difficult job given the scale of the drought that stretched across the entire Horn of Africa. There were so many villages and enclaves of pastoralists in need of aid, that it took forever to get the help all the way out where I was.”

It does make a difference

Throughout his career as a climate photographer, Jakob Dall has worked and traveled for a number of organizations – from Mali to the Madives and Bangladesh, from Greenland to Svalbard and Ireland. It has earned him a number of prestigious awards including the World Press Photo Award for “Best Magazine Feature in Picture of the Year International, People in the News” and the European EISA Award for a photo essay about the impacts of climate change in Ethiopia. But not only has it won him awards, Jakob Dall knows that his photos have actually contributed to making a difference.

In 2009 Jakob visited Mali. Before his visit, the rainy seasons had already become shorter and more intense which

in turn meant that rainwater was less useful to farmers and cultivators. By the time Jakob landed, there was actually no rain to be seen while rivers had completely dried up. The only water available could be sourced from man-made holes which had been dug out twenty years earlier by Danida, the Danish Foreign Ministry’s aid program, during a development project to form dikes. These constructions now served as water reservoirs and fishing lakes.

”After having seen my photos, a group of Red Cross-workers traveled to Mali and subsequently published a guide in English for International Red Cross on what could be done. These are local stories with concrete solutions to be implemented elsewhere, and it feels amazing that my work helped personify climate change and its impact on people instead of, as is often the case, climate change just being about numbers,” says Jakob Dall.

While he is regularly hired by the UN and other nongovernmental agencies, and while his images continue to run in climate reports and international magazines and newspapers, Jakob Dall hasn’t tired of photographing climate change. On the contrary, he plans to produce a new climate change documentary and to publish a book in order to expand upon climate change problems -- and solutions.

Remember everyday life

Jakob’s most current project means he continues to plan new travels and commit his time. It not only requires a lot of work to find funding, it also demands that he remain continuously up-to-date with current events. He does this by reading climate reports, local newspapers and magazines, and especially by reading publications that few in the Western world consider as sources of information.

When he visits places, Jakob’s approach is to get as close to the people impacted by climate change as possible and then to describe how even small changes affect their lives. That’s why he always spends several days in the same place and why he often sleeps locally, sometimes just bringing a mosquito net with him.

”For me the exciting photo almost always has people in it and is taken in a location where people are clearly being impacted by their changing environment. It is often the case that the poorest are impacted first and hardest. It’s their everyday life I want to photograph and not just people lying at death’s door. Everyday life is what people in the rest of the world can relate to and be touched by. I’m trying to show an authentic picture of the living condi-tions of those impacted. That’s why, when traveling, it’s important for me to stay in the same place for a longer period of time,” says Jakob Dall.

His advice is: Spend time, be authentic and keep your eyes open to small changes.