Norwegian photographer Ørjan F Ellingvåg has explored the impact of climate change in his solo photography exhibition titled As You Were under way at the Drik Gallery in Panthapath, Dhaka.

Drik Picture Library and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Dhaka have jointly organised the exhibition, which was inaugurated on December 17.

Norwegian ambassador to Bangladesh Espen Rikter-Svendsen, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Drik managing director Shahidul Alam were present at the inaugural ceremony.

Photographer Ørjan F Ellingvåg is currently residing in Bangladesh. He has covered politics, finance, energy and climate change in different places across the globe such as the USA, Switzerland and now Bangladesh for over the past forty years.

He shared his journey and explained why it was crucial for him to have the exhibition in Bangladesh at the inaugural ceremony.

He believes that the impact of climate change are very much felt everywhere and people are still seemingly unable to change their behaviour.

‘We know the damage we are inflicting but we still carry on. It may be that we are overwhelmed, that the task at hand seems impossible. We need less noise, more space,’ said Ørjan F Ellingvåg.

The exhibition is featuring 28 photographs, which are not typical disaster images, yet they all relate to climate change in one way or another. They are combinations of contrasts and similarities between different settings and places. They tell separate stories and sometimes intersect.

A displayed photograph titled On the Beach, taken at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh in December 2020, addresses air pollution showing children returning home with firewood that they have collected on the beach.

A photograph titled Troubling Tranquility I, taken at Aricha in Bangladesh in March 2021, addresses effects of climate change on people’s livelihood. The photograph shows a fisherman on a sand bank where the Padma meets Jamuna River.

Another photograph titled Glacier River, Eyjafjallajökull, taken in Iceland in April 2010, addresses impact of climate change on Iceland and Icelandic waters. Almost all of Iceland’s glaciers are receding and scientists predict that they may largely vanish in the next 100 to 200 years.

A photograph titled Drowning Forest in Venice, taken at Louisiana in the United States in May 2010, addresses deforestation. The Mississippi Delta was once protected by mangrove and marshland that buffered against stormy weather. With most of the forest cut down by man, cities like New Orleans are much more vulnerable to disasters induced by climate crisis.

Besides, the exhibition features photographs taken in countries, namely Nicaragua, China, Norway and others.

The exhibition will remain open till December 31.