Gomma Photography Grant 2021
Nemo's Garden
Photographer
Giacomo D'Orlando
Nemo's Garden
06 Feb, 2022
Nemo’s Garden documents the first underwater greenhouses of terrestrial plants in the world. "According to the IPCC, the desertification brought on by climate change in recent years has already extensively reduced agricultural productivity in many regions of the world. Agriculture represents 70% of the freshwater use worldwide and current population projections see an estimated increase up to10billionbytheendofthecentury. It is urgent to find an alternative method of cultivation that is ecologically sustainable for our future. With this in mind the Nemo’s Garden, the first underwater greenhouses of terrestrial plants in the world was created. This completely self-sustainable project with no environmental impact represents an alternative farming system, particularly dedicated to those areas where environmental or geo-morphological conditions make the growth of plants almost impossible. The encouraging results of recent years, where more than 40 different species of plants have been successfully cultivated, give us hope that we have found a sustainable agricultural system that can help us to tackle the new challenges brought on to us by climate change."
About the photographer
Giacomo D'Orlando
Giacomo d’Orlando (1990) is an Italian documentary photographer currently based in his hometown, Verona. In 2011, after beginning his career as advertising photographer, in 2015 he decide to move firstly in Nepal and then in Peru in order to approach the photojournalism world. In the following three years, he collaborates with several local NGOs, by focusing his reportages mainly on social issues. From 2018 to 2020 he lived between Australia and New Zealand. Inspired by new stimulus, he began to focus his researches on environmental topics, studying with particular attention the possible future scenarios caused by climate change. His reportages have been published on Washington Post, Der Spiegel, El Pais, Geo France, De Volkskrant, D-La Repubblica, Mare Magazin among the others. Today Giacomo d’Orlando’s work is focused on how the increasing pressures brought by climate change are reshaping the planet and how the present-day society is reacting to the new challenges that will characterize our future.
