Fogaca Scrap Metal Dealer
Vila Dos Papeleiros Neighbourhood
Porto Alegre
Rio Grande do Sul State
Brazil
May 2024

This image from the Vila Dos Papeleiros community was shot very recently amidst the horrific floods which have devastated the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. The writing indicates that the business is the Fogaca Scrap Metal Dealer, ironically a place of recycling amidst a liquid and reflective landscape. After some deliberation I chose this image for an informal crowdfunding endeavour because it is both visually compelling in its precise symmetry and evocative colour, while also questioning our sense of stability in the world. I hope it will invite viewers to engage and then to look further and deeper.

When I saw reports about the flood in early May, it was clear that this is a new chapter in our global climate emergency. I knew that I had to move quickly, but in the current media climate finding the resources to make an expensive journey like this at such short notice is hugely challenging. So, I decided to set off on the journey without funding securely in place, with the hope that I would eventually be able to cover my expenses through this unusual method.

To clarify, this print sale is an opportunity for people who would like to stand by me and support this important journey, and at the same time acquire an exhibition quality print. It will be beautifully printed in an open edition at the size of 40 x 40 cm on textured Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper to bring out the intensity of the colour and it can be posted to any location around the world in an archival sleeve and protective tube. If you would like to be part of this, the cost is £300 (€350, $375). Please send an email to the address at the bottom of this website page to arrange payment and provide a postal address.

Photographing in these flooded communities I was astonished by the scale of the devastation, which felt almost impossible to convey. With the water slowly receding, on numerous occasions I accompanied people as they journeyed back to their homes for the first time to find unspeakable chaos and destruction to their personal possessions. Not a single person I met had insurance, so everything is lost. I have decided that I will make my images and video footage available for free to any Brazilian individual or organisation that is raising funds to help affected people.

On this trip I also shot a substantial amount of video footage and my hope is to eventually create a multi-screen video installation to tell the story of this flood in a deep and complex way. If the print sales resulting from this initiative reach the point of covering all my expenses from the trip, I would put the proceeds of further sales towards the editing and production costs of this video artwork.

“Gideon Mendel’s forty years of socially engaged photographic practice amount to a profound act of witnessing. His partisan projects are made with the intention to be of use, to both record the world we live in, and also to change it. He has never been content to stay wedded to one photographic genre; throughout his career he has been pushing at the limits of photographic practice, challenging himself and his audience to breach boundaries and expectations. For the last eighteen years, with compassion and visual ingenuity he has strived to capture the physical nature and human experience of our global climate emergency, weaving complex narrative threads to depict it and also create tools of visual activism. Producing and funding projects of this sort is always difficult, and I sincerely hope that the ‘experiment’ works, and might even be a model for making further uncompromising work.” Karen McQuaid (Senior Curator at The Photographers Gallery)