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Floods in South Sudan: exhibition by photographer Peter Caton

2023-02-21T17:50:18.864Z


Award-winning photographer Peter Caton spent three years capturing a flood disaster in South Sudan that has become permanent. With his opulent pictures, he wants to give those affected their dignity back.


Passers-by stroll along the Thames with shopping bags, the sun is warming despite the wintry temperatures.

Excursion boats sail past, now and then you can hear the announcements of the tourist guides all the way to the shore.

Then the flow of people slows down, many stop and look through the large shop windows at the hip gallery@oxo, a London gallery in a prime location.

You look through the glass into another world.

People in this world stand waist deep in water.

They hold buckets in their hands, sit in small wooden boats or walk over sandbags.

The women, men and children in the photos do not live in London, but thousands of kilometers away in South Sudan.

A country where more than 900,000 people are affected by floods who just don't want to leave.

Two thirds of the country has been regularly under water for four years now.

A catastrophe in a state that is already badly marked by years of civil war.

The photographer Peter Caton has repeatedly accompanied those affected over the past three years, and his award-winning pictures can now be seen in the London exhibition.

SPIEGEL:

Many people spontaneously stop and are torn out of their London world by your pictures.

A good feeling for you as a photographer?

Peter Caton:

There is an urgent need to raise awareness of South Sudan and the catastrophe there.

I want people to come in and find out.

No one is obliged to donate, but everyone has a moral responsibility not to turn a blind eye.

MIRROR:

What are the reactions?

Caton:

Many people say: I had no idea what was happening there in South Sudan.

They often stand in front of my pictures and photograph them.

That ends up on social media, which is a start.

Hopefully this creates some momentum, as the UK has dramatically reduced its international aid payments since the pandemic, particularly in South Sudan.

Many aid organizations tell me that funds have been cut.

One thing I often hear from visitors to the exhibition is that they not only perceive the tragedy in the picture, but also the beauty.

This is mainly due to the fact that I use high-quality equipment and complex light for my photos, i.e. I photograph almost in studio quality.

People like to look at beautiful things, that's how I get their attention.

Hopefully, at second glance, they can see the vulnerability and suffering that these people in South Sudan are going through.

But it is very important to me that my protagonists are portrayed with dignity.

SPIEGEL:

So no classic poor Africa clichés?

Caton:

I bring a studio camera and studio lights to these remote swamps, sometimes weighing up to 40 kilograms.

That's important to me, because I want to show the beauty that is in people.

I've seen too much work from Africa that comes off as poverty porn.

With the light I have with me I can capture all the details of the faces, all the complexity.

I show the people as a whole, even in the catastrophe.

SPIEGEL:

Aren't protagonists scared off when they arrive with all their gear?

Caton:

On the contrary, I think that makes people take me even more seriously.

Many want to make themselves beautiful for the portraits, it is a special moment for them in all the suffering.

You feel noticed and enjoy the attention.

Yes, some people are a bit shy at first because they think my gear could blind them, they've never seen anything like it.

But I work with a team of local people who help me with the lights and they then tell people not to worry.

SPIEGEL:

Your work is almost always about climate change.

Do you want to create feelings of guilt?

Caton:

Yes, absolutely.

People are in a very privileged situation here in the UK and across Europe.

They are rarely directly affected by climate change.

So we have to show them that the people in the Global South who contribute the least to the climate crisis are suffering the most.

And because South Sudan is geographically so low, it is very prone to flooding.

I want to push people to that.

SPIEGEL:

What do you particularly remember from your trips to South Sudan?

Caton:

I remember one woman well that I've photographed before.

She had to move to a school because the flood destroyed her house.

When I visited her again a year later, the water in the classroom was more than a meter high.

I just thought, oh my god, this is getting worse and worse.

The floods are not receding, but are becoming more severe every year.

Even in the dry season it doesn't get any better.

SPIEGEL:

Do many people want to leave the area or are they sticking to their homeland?

Caton:

You don't want to go.

They are very proud of their homeland, most of them don't know anything else.

They build dikes every day to protect their villages - and hope that the situation will eventually ease.

Gunshots can be heard at night.

That's because the people work in shifts to guard the dikes, and when the floodwaters burst they fire in the air to alert the village.

Everyone then comes together and works as a team throughout the night to repair the dike.

This is an almost inhumane task.

Many residents have somehow adapted in the meantime.

They stack grass on top of each other until it becomes a reasonably stable floating platform on which to build a mud hut.

These grass islands then float on the water, they can rise with the water level.

In addition, some have started growing rice with the help of aid organizations – they are effectively taking advantage of the flood.

SPIEGEL:

What was the biggest problem for your work on site?

Caton:

The mosquitoes!

I have never experienced such aggressive mosquitoes anywhere in the world.

The risk of malaria is also high.

They fly not only at night and at dusk, but throughout the day, constantly.

For the first time in my career I had to quit a photo shoot because I just couldn't take it anymore.

Then the residents sewed me a two-layer mosquito suit out of a net.

But when I marched into the villages, I looked like a ghost.

That's when I realized that maybe it wasn't that clever and people probably think I'm crazy.

So I had to get it done again, around the clock.

This contribution is part of the Global Society project

Expand areaWhat is the Global Society project?

Under the title "Global Society", reporters from

Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe

report on injustices in a globalized world, socio-political challenges and sustainable development.

The reports, analyses, photo series, videos and podcasts appear in a separate section in the foreign section of SPIEGEL.

The project is long-term and is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

A detailed FAQ with questions and answers about the project can be found here.

AreaWhat does the funding look like in concrete terms?open

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has been supporting the project since 2019 for an initial period of three years with a total of around 2.3 million euros - around 760,000 euros per year.

In 2021, the project was extended by almost three and a half years until spring 2025 under the same conditions.

AreaIs the journalistic content independent of the foundation?open

Yes.

The editorial content is created without the influence of the Gates Foundation.

AreaDo other media also have similar projects?open

Yes.

Major European media outlets such as The Guardian and El País have set up similar sections on their news sites with Global Development and Planeta Futuro, respectively, with the support of the Gates Foundation.

Did SPIEGEL already have similar projects? open

In recent years, DER SPIEGEL has already implemented two projects with the European Journalism Center (EJC) and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: the "Expedition ÜberMorgen" on global sustainability goals and the journalistic refugee project "The New Arrivals", within the framework of which several award-winning multimedia reports on the topics of migration and flight have been created.

Expand areaWhere can I find all publications on the Global Society?

The pieces can be found at SPIEGEL on the Global Society topic page.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2023-02-21

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