This week, the Berlin-based American documentary photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz will light up the East River and illuminate worldwide environmental issues in an outdoor solo exhibition, Water Stories: the Global Water Crisis in Pictures (21 September-12 October 2016). Sixty-eight images that capture the global water crisis—from poisoned marigold fields in Kanpur, India to polluted rivers in São Paolo, Brazil that provide 21 million people with water—will be presented in large-scale light boxes along the riverfront at Brooklyn Bridge Plaza, visible from across the water in Manhattan. Abdulaziz has travelled to nine countries since 2011 to shoot the series, including Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Pakistan, and Water Stories will feature new photographs Abdulaziz took in New York over the summer to capture the city’s waterways and sewers. There are bright spots amidst the gloom and doom: shots of individuals who are combatting environmental damage, such as a mason building toilets in Kanpur. Water Stories is part of the Photoville Festival at Brooklyn Bridge Park (21-25 September) and also overlaps with Climate Week NYC (19-25 September), a series of events run by the Climate Group, a non-profit that brings together businesses and government to reduce carbon emissions. The project is the result of a collaboration with the HSBC Water Programme, a partnership between HSBC, Earthwatch, WaterAid and WWF.
