Nick Brandt: The Day May Break

The Fahey/Klein Gallery is pleased to present SINK / RISE: The Day May Break, Chapter Three and THE ECHO OF OUR VOICES: The Day May Break, Chapter Four, an exhibition of new works, made as part of an ongoing global series of images portraying people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction.

SINK / RISE: The Day May Break, Chapter Three highlights South Pacific Islanders in Fiji grappling with rising ocean levels.  THE ECHO OF OUR VOICES: The Day May Break, Chapter Four focuses on Syrian refugee families battling water scarcity in the deserts of southern Jordan. This dual exhibition underscores the diverse ways climate change affects communities around the world, revealing the universal threat to our lives and homes. Brandt’s cohesive bodies of work offer a unique approach to climate-conscious photography and celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the stabilizing effects of community in the face of adversity. Throughout the series, local subjects represent their individual communities and highlight the strength and solidarity that emerge in challenging times.

Captured in camera underwater off the coast of Fiji, the photographs in SINK / RISE: The Day May Break, Chapter Three depict local people, representatives of the many people whose homes, land and livelihoods will be lost in the coming decades as the water rises. In serene, everyday poses—sitting on sofas or standing on chairs—amidst an otherworldly aquatic environment, the photographs convey a striking contrast between the familiar and the surreal, while foreshadowing a possible reckoning as sea levels rise.

The subjects in THE ECHO OF OUR VOICES: The Day May Break, Chapter Four, almost all Syrian refugee families, are posed together atop stacks of boxes against the vast painterly deserts in southern Jordan. These individuals are forced to relocate multiple times a year in search of destinations with adequate rainfall for crops in one of the most water scarce regions in the world. The portraits from the series monumentalize a loss of place and show connection and strength in the face of adversity, that when so much else is lost, in theory you still have each other.

THE ECHO OF OUR VOICES: The Day May Break Chapter Four was partially funded by Gallerie d’Italia Museum, Turin, Italy.