by It takes a while to fully understand what you see in Edoardo Delille and Giulia Piermartiri’s photos of the Maldives. On one photo a sea turtle seems to swim on a motor next to a few; In another, a family of five pose in the corridor of their house, apparently under a diver who floats in full diving equipment.
Allocated of tourist snaps that were taken under water in the Indian Ocean, the flushing images refer to the scenario that scientists believe that by the end of the century could play if the climate crisis is not immediately tackled. With an average increase of only one meter (3.3 feet) above sea level, the Maldives is the world’s lowest country and therefore with a considerable risk. Some reports predict that by 2050 80% of its country can become uninhabitable if the sea level continues to rise with their current rate. The images of Delille and Piermartiri illustrate this potential future.
The photo album of Delille and Piermartiri, “Atlas of the New World”, was unveiled at the 2025 Arles Photography Festival. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/Courtesy L’artiere
Recorded in 2019, and previously entitled ‘Diving Maldives’, the series became the starting point for ‘Atlas of the New World’, a photo album that was recently published by L’Artiere (the images are currently also exhibited at Cortona on the Move, a photography festival in Tuscany). The photographers traveled to six vulnerable areas with very climbing in an attempt to make the extreme environmental realities for this century. Their technique married scientific data with Oneiric Visuals, and they produced the images via an analog process with a projector working on batteries that is connected to a flash.
“We discovered that to show the present was not enough,” Delille explained to a video call. “So we looked at how global warming will change the morphological shape of the landscape, directly at the end of the century, which better shows the severity of the problem.”
About their decision to tackle the climate crisis in their images, Delille explained that “you can’t feel the problem” and “to show the present, wasn’t enough.” – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/Courtesy L’artiere
The images of Delille and Piermartiri illustrate a future with desert formation, climate migration, rising sea level and forest fires. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/Courtesy L’artiere
Each of the chapters of the book – which also include California, Mont Blanc, Mozambique, China and Russia – uses the same tools to emphasize a different version of a similar story, with striking results. In one image made in paradise, California-one stands where the average area that is burned through forest fires will increase by 77% against 2100 as a planet heating continues to rise-a man is depicted who has the contents of his fridge scanning as bright orange flames fill his kitchen. In the series looking at Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps and the location of fast melting glaciers, flowery green meadows are super -superponated.
Acquired from different image banks are the visuals in every photo of landscapes that already experience similar weather conditions such as that prediction; Images of the Nevada desert, for example, are projected on houses in California, while in the Mozambique series they mainly come from the Namib desert in Namibia.
Everywhere the photos are accompanied by comparative data – mainly taken from the Environmental Program of the United Nations, or from more localized databases such as those forests in the US – to illustrate the differences between the current statistics and that projected for both text and in infographs). Essays written by various experts.
By confronting and visually arresting images, Delille and Piermartiri hope to challenge viewers to be more reflective – and more proactive about protecting the planet. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/Courtesy L’artiere
“Everything is shocking,” Delille continued, referring to the weight of their research. Usually located in Florence, the photographers were first motivated to see the global climate protests unfold in September 2019, while people around the world took to the streets that took action; In Italy, more than a million reportedly participated.
Delille and Piermartiri, who covered for a month or two in every place they covered, explained that although the photos are clearly central to the project, the conversations they had with people on the floor appearing in the images, were the real core. “It was really important before it photographed, to do interviews,” Delille shared. “We really care about what they think about how global warming influences their lives. And every place they had a completely different mentality about the problem.”
“The contrast on the Maldives was really strong,” explains Piermartiri. “It was completely green – electric engines, solar panels – 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 local people will be put under water – I also say, 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/Courtesy L’artiere
Delille and Piermartiri spent a month or two at any location they photographed and had conversations with people who live in those areas. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/Courtesy L’artiere
According to the photographers, those who will be the most affected in the future are less rich. “Poor people suffer. They can’t just move to a cooler place,” said Delille. – Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille/Courtesy L’artiere
In Mozambique, where they spoke with farmers and collaborated with an NGO aimed at migration, the photographers were hit by how much the country suffers from a climate crisis that is overwhelmingly powered by rich countries. As a continent, Africa worldwide only contributes 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, while Mozambique, who has suffered two of the worst droughts in its history in the last decade, contributes only 0.22%.
“Global warming is not democratic,” said Delille. “The richest people do these things (pollute the planet and influence climate change) and poor people suffer. They can’t just go to a cooler place.”
Delille and Piermartiri decided early, of those first photos taken on the Maldives, that “Atlas of the New World” should be an academically assigned project in contrast to an artistic coffee table book. Then they started to see a broader potential. “We only understood later in the process that this project was made for future generations,” Delille noted. “We would like to use this in schools.”
“It is a kind of manual,” Piermartiri agreed to think about the involvement they have already received from conversations and exhibitions. “When children look at our photos, they immediately become aware of the problem. These photos talk about the future, and the most important thing is that the message goes on to them.”
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