A young Tuvaluan girl poses with a computer keyboard on the narrowest part...READ ON
A young Tuvaluan girl poses with a computer keyboard on the narrowest part of the island of Fongafale. This particular piece of land is approximately 10m wide between the lagoon and the Pacific Ocean, and is often submerged during king tides.
A dead dog on the shore near the end of Tuvalu's airport runway.
Lasalo.
A house on Tuvalu Road in Funafuti.
Chinese motorbikes are the islands main form of transportation.
How to fill a scooter with gas, Tuvalu style.
Anugerah Rahadian Firdaus, the Imam of Tuvalu's Ahmadiyyah Mosque.
Tuvaluan kids can make toys out of anything.
The island of Fongafale is home to close to 7000 people. At just12km...READ ON
The island of Fongafale is home to close to 7000 people. At just12km long and between 400m and 10m wide, this means the island has a relatively high population density. Seeing the islands rubbish dump really makes one question the effects of throwaway culture and single-use plastics on small island societies. It all has to go somewhere.
Friday night in Funafuti.
Kava, Tuvalu style.
Fongafale
Tuvalu's main island of Fongafale is geographically isolated, low-lying, and measures in at only 12km long, and between 10m and 400m wide. It is also one of the least visited countries on earth.
Some climate change scientists have predicted that due to current rates of sea level rise and climate change, Tuvalu as a sovereign nation will cease to exist in the next 50-100 years. If these projections turn out to be true, Tuvalu could be the first nation to have to be evacuated as a result of climate change. To date, no other countries have agreed to accept future Tuvaluan climate change refugees.
Despite the threats that climate change poses to the very existence of their ancestral island home, the Tuvaluan people maintain strong Polynesian cultural roots and live a lifestyle that is decidedly relaxed and unhurried.
I am currently conducting academic research in Tuvalu that investigates visual representations of the Tuvaluan people in international media and how this influences "last chance" tourism in the country. My photographic work in Tuvalu is part of an ongoing project to showcase the relative normalcy of life in places that the media often portrays as hopeless and dire. I hope to expand this work to other countries in the near future.
Todd Henry Photography
Social Documentary / Visual Ethnography. Todd Henry is a documentary photographer, photojournalist, and visual storyteller.