Empathy Through Art

Drowning Worlds: Jeff and Tracy Waters. Gideon Mendel (2014, Photography)

Drowning Worlds is a photo series by Gideon Mendel (2014, photography). Mendel took portraits of people who had been affected by floods.  These portraits often had people standing with water up to their waists.  This poignant demonstration showed the devastation of floods in a unique way because it framed the issue around actual people who had lost their homes to flooding.  By using portrait photography, Mendel humanized the problem.  It was no longer information in the form of a long article cataloging the devastation of climate change that not everyone has the ability to understand, it was now simply Jeff and Tracy, a UK couple who lost their home.  By looking at these portraits, people can be much more deeply moved by the issue because they can see themselves in these people and can have more empathy.  I believe this increase in empathy leads to a more unified humanity, because we feel for the people being affected and want to do something.