These incredible photographs are prophecies for our planet
Fabrice Monteiro’s apocalyptic, stylised images expose what our planet could look like in the not too distant future
“The western world has lost touch with its roots, its traditions, its culture, and the sense of connection that ties it to nature,” explains Fabrice Monteiro when asked about the reasons behind his most recent body of work, The Prophecy – a series of evocative visual allegories shedding light on major current environmental concerns. “We live in this hyper-consumerist system where profit comes first, and the links to our origins and the ancestral source of life is slowly being dissipated. While making this work, I tried to rebuild and strengthen that link.”
Raised in Africa in the 80s, the Belgian-Beninese photographer grew up in a world still untainted by the now increasingly pressing issues of pollution and climate change. “Today, things are very different,” he argues. “The younger generations are faced with these concerns since birth. Their lives will be affected more than anyone else’s before them, and the ways in which we mistreat the environment is something none of us can afford to ignore anymore.” Monteiro’s faith in the youth as key actors of future change drove him to incorporate elements of traditional storytelling, magic, and mysticism into his symbolically charged frames, hoping that by connecting art, culture and politics, a sense of awareness and collective ethical concern will be ignited. “My initial idea was to create some sort of tale for kids that could be distributed in African schools and that would be based on traditional beliefs, especially animism – the belief in spirits,” asserts the Dakar-based image-maker. “Each spirit depicted appears on a different site touching specifically upon one environmental issue – plastic waste, global warming… I shot nine prophecies in Senegal, but I want to start making these images all around the world – Africa was just the starting point for an issue that affects the entire planet.”
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Outstanding article and photos Larry. Thanks for this.
Appreciate that kavika.
I fear that we may be too late to prevent a full, global-scale environmental catastrophe; but, we have to start trying as hard as possible.
Yes we do my friend.
Awesome photos, disturbing and cautionary !
As we have a floating mass of tangled plastic and other assorted trash the size of Texas bobbing about in the Pacific, we sadly may have already arrived.
Good job.
Nice photos, but these are the photos that bother me.
Great photos Six and they fit right in here.
"NATURE IS THE ART OF GOD … "
And IMO, no one who deems himself to be "spiritual" or "religious," can be simultaneously "anti-environmentalism."