by It takes a moment to understand what you see in Edoardo Delille and Giulia Piermartiri’s photos of the Maldives. In one picture, a sea turtle seems to swim on a motorcycle next to a couple. In another case, a family of five poses in the hallway of their house, apparently under a diver that hovers in full diving equipment.
The tourist snaps taken by tourists snapshots on the Indian ocean point to the scenario that scientists believe that scientists could play until the end of the century if the climate crisis is not addressed immediately. With an average height of just one meter (3.3 feet) above sea level, the Maldives is the lowest lying country in the world and therefore a considerable risk. Some reports predict that by 2050, 80% of its country could become uninhabitable if the sea level continues to increase with its current sentence. The pictures of Delille and Piermartiri illustrate this potential future.
Delille and Piermartiri’s photo book, “Atlas of the New World”, was unveiled at the Arles Photography Festival 2025. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/With the kind permission of L’Artiere
The series was shot in 2019 and previously entitled “Diving Maldives” to the starting point for “Atlas of the New World”. The photographers traveled in six high -climate areas to make the extreme environmental attention predictable for this century. Your technology married scientific data with Oneiric visuals and generated the pictures about an analog process that included a battery-operated projector connected with a flash.
“We found that it was not enough to show the present,” said Delille in a video call. “So we looked at how global warming will change the morphological form of the landscape directly at the end of the century, which shows the severity of the problem better.”
In her decision to tackle the climate crisis in her pictures, Delille explained that “one cannot feel the problem” and “the present was not sufficient”. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/With the kind permission of L’Artiere
The pictures of Delille and Piermartiri illustrate a future that includes desert formation, climate gigation, increasing sea level and forest fires. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/With the kind permission of L’Artiere
Each of the chapters of the book – which also includes California, Mont Blanc, Mozambique, China and Russia, uses the same tools to emphasize a different version of a similar story with remarkable results. In a picture in Paradise, California-one state in which the average area, which was burned by forest fires, is increased by 77% by 2100 if the planetary heating pollution continues to increase-a man casually mapped the content of his refrigerator, while light orange flames fill his kitchen. In the series, in the Mont Blanc, the highest peak of the Alps and the place of rapidly melting glaciers, floral green meadows are overlaid on snow.
The visuals in every photo are from different illustrations and are of landscapes that already have similar weather to these forecasts. For example, pictures of the desert in Nevada in California are projected onto houses, while the main ones come from the Namib desert in Namibia in the Mozambique series.
In the meantime, the images are accompanied by comparative data – mainly from the united nations environmental program or from localized databases such as those that predict forest fires in the USA – which illustrate the differences between current statistics and those that are projected for 2100 (both in text and infographic). Further sub -control of the work are a collection of accompanying essays written by various experts.
Delille and Piermartiri hope to move the audience to reflect the planet – and proactively – by confronting pictures and visually arresting the viewer. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/With the kind permission of L’Artiere
“Everything is shocking,” continued Delille, alluding to the weight of her research. As a rule in Florence, the photographers were motivated for the first time and in September 2019 to observe how global climate protests develop when people around the world took to the streets and demanded measures. According to reports, more than a million took part in Italy.
Delille and Piermartiri, who spent a month or two at every place, explained that the photos, although the photos are obvious for the project, are of central importance, the discussions with people on site that appear in the pictures were the real core. “It was really important to keep interviews before shooting,” said Delille. “We really take care of what you think about how global warming affects your life. And at every place you had a completely different mentality about the problem.”
“The contrast among the Maldives was very strong,” said Piermartiri. “It was totally green – electric motorcycles, solar collectors – because they live with nature. The main pollution came from tourists.” These visitors added Delille, had imported everything: “Champagne, beer, Italian wine, American things … it was really strange to see. The locals are immersed because of us – I also say myself because I went there by plane – but they live very ethically.”
Márcia Sambo, a farmer, is depicted in front of her house on the island of Inhaca. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/With the kind permission of L’Artiere
Delille and Piermartiri spent a month or two at every place they photographed, and had conversations with people who lived in these areas. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/With the kind permission of L’Artiere
According to the photographers, those who will be the most affected in the future are less. “Poor people suffer. You can’t just move to a cooler place,” said Delille. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/With the kind permission of L’Artiere
In Mozambique, where she spoke to farmers and next to an NGO that focused on migration, the photographers worked from how much the country suffers from a climate crisis that was overwhelming by rich countries. As a continent, Africa only contributes to 4% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, while Mozambique, which has suffered two of the worst droughts in its history in the past decade, only contributes to 0.22%.
“Global warming is not democratic,” said Delille. “The richest people do these things (who pollute the planet and influence climate change) and poor people suffer. They cannot simply move to a cooler place.”
Delille and Piermartiri decided early on from these first pictures that were made in the Maldives that “Atlas of the New World” should be an academic-adjazent project, in contrast to an artistic coffee table book. Then they saw a broader potential. “We only understood later in the process that this project had been carried out for future generations,” said Delille. “We would be happy that this will be used in schools.”
“It is a kind of manual,” said Piermartiri and reflected the commitment that they have already received from discussions and exhibitions. “When children look at our pictures, they are immediately aware of the problem. These pictures talk about the future, and the most important thing is that the message continues to them.”
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