In the Light of Change

Name: Elwely Cheikh Nagi Vall

Age: 20

Country: Mauritania

In the Light of Change

The Light of Change, by Elwely Vall

Project description 

Today is us, tomorrow is you.

This is a story about the future and the future may be scary !!

Every second we go closer and closer to the future we have set and the future we have chosen.

Unstable governments, population explosion, wars on every continent, famine, water shortages, environmental pollution, cities sinking, rivers running dry, cultures disappearing - are we on the brink of the end? 

Driven by my passion for photography, I want to change humanity's view of the future and the impact of climate change. I lived this first-hand when ocean waters flooded the house where I was born and raised in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott. 

Places that were part of our daily lives and part of our collective memory are disappearing, and I am photographing the present in the face of an ominous future. But what if these moments are the future, based on the words of scientists and the experiences of cities and human souls? What if my camera were projecting these destined moments? 

I imagine these photographs as signals to a monitoring device that broadcasts to the future - and this device seeks to convince the world to change.

Project details and presentation: 

I've created a concept or project called "in the light of change " and I believe it's going to change the way we  look at the world and the future . as I know it for me when ocean waters flooded the house where I was born and raised in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchot.

Using places and Time and experience of people and city in Mauritania  as a guide, I seamlessly blend those worst moments into one single photograph, visualizing our conscious journey with time. I can take you to spring And the early morning of our framers in the future

And simultaneously, I can show you our fields score And in between, I can show you the Schools and what will happen to our children.

I am essentially have the  passion of the environment and  travel photography when I was 7 years old  , and every single thing you see in this pictures  actually happened after very fast and nearly from my home where we can see that  the impact of the climate change isn't over the forest or ocean or village it's coming to our doors and climate change will  come inside our homes and planet!!


In the light of change  is a global project, and hope to be a tool to preserve  the environment and our planet and reduce the impact of climate change globally, 

By convey the stories of those people and places who are suffering scintely because of this phenomenon and im fascinated by the concept of going to a place like this : 


I wanted to see the diama dam , And an important element that I really want you guys to understand is: this is not a picture of drought dam or rivers , this is a photograph of a dry dam  wich give the water to more then 150000 familes depending on agriculture and animal  

even with the  drought of the dam   I realise that the framers who  depending on the water from Water tanks

Have a big problems with the effect of climate  They have the phoenemon of the Worms of grbyl, and it's names locally  there and scientifically "foot excavators," appeared in 1998. These are considered to be some of the most destructive agricultural pests as they enter the stalks and spoil them from the inside to eliminate them. This led farmers who depending  on Water tanks using poisonous drugs and toxins which contaminates the agricultural produce; this contributes majorly to the possibility of famine in the region which make them between two choice eating the poisoning food or will have a famine...

This is a example of  one of the pictures , and The entire concept came about 2015 from a photography  trip that I did in the middle of the desert of Mauritania in tanouchert oasis where there is no electricity no internet And no sign that we are in the twenty-first century... 

And the picture ( biy with camles in a well ) which has a special meaning for me personally.... 

This image is in well we’re all the camels and animals of the desert come together to drink the water from the wall...

During the project I’ve learned so many extraordinary things doing this project .

I think the most important thing to  i learned is the power of observation. 

But in very unique and special way  I believe that in the light of change  photographs begin to make us look at the future , and I think its will  embody a new view or frame of reality.

When you spend 20 years in city or village or even country we’re you was born and grow up with families friends neighbor whatever in this places , you don’t look at this  places as a home but you look at us memory or identity for and at some way you look at like your future...

And here we have a prefect example...

I visited a lot  of nomadic People in  Mauritania ... and I have saw how climate-change Is changing there identity and Memory ....

And finally , my oldest image  from a photography trip that I did in the middle of the desert of Mauritania in tanouchert oasis where there is no electricity no internet And no sign that we are in the twenty-first century...

I went specifically during the summer Where the temperature reaches 50 degrees in the middle of the day ..

To hopefully capture how the people is affected by climate change ....

But what I watched during the animals drinking from the well was unimaginable..  in fact was peaceful and respectful...

All the competitive animals Share a single resource called water ....

The same resource that humanity is will wars over...

During the next 20 or 50  years......

The animals never even grunted at each other they seem to-understand something that the human don’t ...

That the water is something we all have to share ... When I took this picture ...

I thought that in the light of change really is a new way of seeing , the dangerous of CO2 in the future ,document the time and space within a photograph and in the light of will not only communicate a deeper meaning of time and memory ,  but it’s will compose untold stories and creating a deep timeless window into our world about how the earth will be if we don’t stop and fighting the global warming.