Behold The Ocean

A project about contrast and vulnerability in climate research.

In December 2020, one day before the quarantine was lifted in the communa of Punta Arenas in the Southernmost of Chilean Patagonia, two young ocean scientists embark on their first expedition of that pandemical year, to conclude a research project about the effects that global warming has on the marine ecosystems in the region. "The pandemic has had effects on almost every activity we develop as researchers. We are not allowed to travel. If you are a scientist, you do research, environmental research, and for that, you have to be outside. For example, this biogeochemical oceanographic buoy that we are expected to recover in Whale Sound was supposed to be retrieved in the middle of the year. So we have been postponing this for six months already. And I also lost some other field trips because of this. So I think that this will create an enormous gap of knowledge, which was probably a massive effort in the past decade. All across the world, environmental scientists and people who do environmental monitoring of different aspects will have gaps of data that will impact future models for climate change and other things.", says Maxi, one of the scientists. This visual storytelling project consists of hundreds of photographs and 30 pages of personal interviews with Marco and Maxi, who are sharing their doubts and challenges of being a climate scientist today, impacted by Covid19 with limited resources. Climate change provides the backdrop for this unique insight into our new generation of scientists in marginalized communities. The photography project is accompanied by a film, a book is currently in the making, all of the work is unpublished and fresh.