Alice de Kruijs - Paradise Island
Alice de Kruijs (b. 1981 The Netherlands) is a storytelling photographer focusing on the subjects of identity and diversity. De Kruijs’s bodies of work aim to go against the cultural and ethnic stereotypes. In 2019 De Kruijs was selected as one of the Fresh Eyes talents.
Here, in conversation with the Fresh Eyes editor, Alice is shortly discussing her most recent project: “Paradise Island”, a conceptual photography series about the conditions of living on the Pacific Islands in risk of extinction due to the global warming.
“Tuvalu is sinking” is the local catch-all phrase for the effects of climate change on this tiny island archipelago on the frontline of global warming. Can you tell us more about this country and its population?
Tuvalu is the fourth smallest nation in the world, composed by a group of nine islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia and it’s home for ten thousand people. Global warming is pretty much tangible in Tuvalu, so that two of the nine islands are on the verge of going under swallowed by sea-rise and coastal erosion. Most of the islands sit barely three meters above sea level, and at its narrowest point, the main island Fongafale stretches just 20m across.
Despite locals have campaigned against climate change, nothing has been done internationally, and these people are let alone.
How are the locals dealing with the rise of the water level?
They live mostly from farming, which makes their lives very uncertain. The sea flooded a few times already and the salty sea water destroyed their agriculture. Sooner or later, they will need to leave their beloved island and move to larger and safer places. Once that will happen, not only the land will disappear but together with that, their community, their language and their unique culture. It is a catastrophe.
The world must know the harsh consequences. World leaders are still talking about climate change but we can no longer wait. We need to act.
Who are the people in these portraits?
I wanted to celebrate the colourful and unique lifestyles of the isolated cultures from the Pacific area, which historically have been a crossroads of cultures.
Either way, during my research I found out that I overlooked one big factor: in Oceania climate change is already very real, as the sea level keeps rising several deserted islands have already been disappeared.
For two years now I photographed the consequences of the rising sea level. I could not travel last year due to Covid-19 restrictions. But I felt the project wasn’t finished yet, so I decided to portray some models in my studio. I painted texts on the models face and on cards. I then selected a suitable background image, and digitally merged those with the portraits.
Paradise Islands will be exhibited in March at the CAMP gallery in Miami.
You can support the people of the Pacific Islands via a donation: https://www.greenpeace.org.au/donate/pacific-islands