A Burning World: Gideon Mendel in conversation with Zed Nelson

This May Day, the Islington Climate Centre is excited to host an event with two world renowned photographers ... 

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE.

Against the backdrop of heartbreaking images capturing scenes of environmental destruction from Gideon Mendel's Burning World project, Zed Nelson will be in conversation with Mendel, discussing the process of bearing witness and creating long term impactful work.

In October 2023, Gideon and Extinction Rebellion staged a mobile exhibition outside Standard Chartered’s head office, highlighting the bank's funding of fossil fuels - as well as its disingenuous sponsorship of this year's Weather Photographer of the Year by The Royal Meteorological Society. 

From Extinction Rebellion's press release of the mobile exhibition: "Gideon Mendel’s photography bears stark witness to the suffering  wreaked on communities and the widespread environmental destruction  created by wildfires, which are occuring ever more frequently as global  temperatures continue to rise, fuelled by the burning of fossil fuels." 

According to the Royal Meteorological Society’s website, the annual  Standard Chartered Photography Competition, now in its eighth year, aims  to “provide an international platform to raise awareness about the  environmental issues putting our planet at risk. 

With no sign of irony, considering this year’s competition is  sponsored by a Bank which in 2022 alone funded fossil fuel companies to  the tune of $5.1bn, the Royal Meteorological Society notes: “Climate  change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today, and its  impact on the environment and human health significantly affects  sustainable economic growth and the future of society.”"

Doors open: 6pm

Conversation begins: 6.30pm

Questions from the audience: 7.15pm to 7.30pm

Event ends: 9pm

Tickets - £8 earning  £5 concessions  ( refreshments supplied ). Eventbrite link to follow.

Biographies

Gideon Mendel is a world-renowned photographer, artist and activist. His 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.

For the last sixteen years, capturing the human experience and physical impacts of
the global climate emergency has been his focus, with his Drowning World and Burning World projects weaving complex narrative threads to depict it. Showing catastrophic floods and the aftermath of wildfires Mendel takes us into the lives of the affected individuals as they navigate the devastation in their wake, and comprehend a profoundly altered landscape.

Zed Nelson is an award-winning documentary photographer and filmmaker based in London. He specialises in long-term projects that explore contemporary society.He has published three books, Gun Nation, Love Me and A Portrait of Hackney, and been recognised by numerous photography awards, including the Visa d’Or (France), First Prize in the World Press Photo Competition (Netherlands), and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award (USA).His latest film, ‘THE STREET’ focuses on one street in Hackney over four years - exploring runaway gentrification and change.

Nelson's latest work, The Anthropocene Illusion (2024) will be published this year.

https://gideonmendel.com/ https://www.zednelson.com/