Spotlight
British Journal Of Photography: Decade of Change Award
nick st.oegger
May 19, 2022
I'm honoured that two of my photos have been selected as winners of the British Journal of Photography's Decade of Change award, which highlights a diverse range of work focused on the climate crisis. Personally, these happen to be two of my favourite images that I've taken, selected from two different longterm bodies of work that focus on the plight of the Vjosa river, one of Europe's last free flowing rivers, as well as the nomadic shepherds of Albania's northern Kelmend valley, who are facing direct existential threats from both a rapidly changing climate, and construction of hydropower dams on the alpine rivers they rely on.
It's been almost ten years since I first started working in Albania, and every year I can see clear signs of the effects of climate change here, especially since starting to focus on rivers. There's less and less snow, and rainfall, weather patterns are increasingly erratic, and summer temperatures are staying much higher, for much longer. In a country that still has a sizeable rural population, and that relies so much on agriculture, there is a real threat from these changes.
I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to share this work, and to highlight important aspects of Albania's cultural and environmental herita heritage on a global scale.
Decade of Change 2022: The WinnersReading Time: 6 minutes From environmental anxiety and visions of devastation, to images confronting us with the effects of global warming upon indigenous communities, these images offer an impactful and urgent response to how our world is changing
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