James Whitlow Delano

Japan-based documentary storyteller. He has been a professional photographer since 1987 and has lived in Asia for over 20 years.
His work has been published on international magazines like National Geographic, Geo Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, it has been exhibited around the world and led to four award-winning monograph photo books, including “Empre: Impression from China” and “Black Tsunami: Japan 2011”. His projects have been cited with the Alfred Eisenstadt Award (from Columbia University and Life Magazine), Leica’s Oskar Barnack, Picture of the Year International, NPPA Best Photojuornalism, PDN and others. In 2015 he founded EverydayClimateChange (ECC) Instagram feed, where photographers from six continents document Climate Change all over the world. Delano is grantee for Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

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For a complete overview of James Whitlow Delano’s projects

jameswhitlowdelano.photoshelter.com

Photo Op represents James Whitlow Delano in Italy.

Some of the stories available:

Bolivia. Climate Change & Urban Migration

Climate change is profoundly impacting Bolivia’s indigenous-majority population, creating deserts out of lakes, drying out rivers, melting ice and triggering migration to urban centers in South America’s most impoverished nation.

La Rinconada. Andean Gold, Mercury and Climate Change

What happens when climate change, gold fever, a receding glacier and poverty converge on an Andean mountain. La Rinconada is the highest permanently settled place on the planet sandwiched between a glacier and an indescribably contaminated gold mining pit over 5 kilometer above sea level in the Peruvian Andes. For over 500 years, “La Bella Durmiente” (Sleeping Beauty) has lured miners, first the Inca, then the Spanish. Now indigenous Peruvians come hoping to get lucky, “la suerte”, and strike it rich.

Hidden Crisis: Obesity & Malnutrition in Post-NAFTA Mexico

Mexico also has the distinction of co-mingling an obesity crisis with malnutrition.
Produced by Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Japan’s Climate Change Challenges

Beneath this timeless cycle, the climate is steadily, palpably changing with consequences for the wild and human inhabitants, altering the many micro-climates that pepper this diverse archipelago

China’s Water Crisis is a Global Crisis

“Water spilled can never be retrieved.”
– Chinese proverb.

Environmental Crisis in Eastern Tibet

Within Eastern Tibet just about every climate on earth can be found – from glacial ice to lush rainforest, even micro-deserts supporting little more than cactus. With about 1.3 billion people depending on the rivers that flow from the Tibetan Plateau, a huge chunk of humanity, not to mention wildlife, are dependent in some way upon these diverse ecosystems.

Road Trip to Hokkaido – Japan’s Big Sky Country

The light is different in Hokkaido, white and angular, slanting through breaks in Rubenesque clouds racing across a big sky. This is Japan’s Alaska. Almost legendary indigenous Ainu men used to lived here and called this part of their homeland, “Kamui Mintara”, God’s Playground.

Japan’s Climate Change Challenges • Snow field on the ascent to the summit of volcanic Mt. Rausu, Shiretoko Peninsula's highest peak, Shiretoko National Park, an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Japan’s Climate Change Challenges • Vast array of radiation-contaminated soil that has been removed from these agricultural fields, mostly rice paddy fields, for removed to a temporary storage facility. Fukushima Prefecture, Japan

Japan’s Climate Change Challenges • Hearty plants cling to life in the alpine environment that surrounds the sulphuric acid lake in the crater of active volcano Mt. Shirane, one of Japan's most dangerous volcanoes. There are 118 volcanoes in Japan and over 100 of them are active, creating unique alpine ecosystems.

Japan’s Climate Change Challenges • Delivery man wheels deliveries around a Tokyo neighborhood. Sometimes, such carts can be towed around by bicycle, making deliveries further afield possible without using emissions emitting transportation. The carbon footprint for the average Japanese person is between 50% - 60% of the average American, meaning that, per capita, Japan is contributing significantly less greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than in the US.

Japan’s Climate Change Challenges • Second of the Shiretoko Five Lakes, Shiretoko National Park, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hokkaido, Japan.

La Rinconada - Andean Gold, Mercury and Climate Change • Miners and workers gather in the falling snow at a Christian shrine that serves as a lookout to look down on the site of a riot pitting miners, enjoying no security, against salaried workers.

La Rinconada - Andean Gold, Mercury and Climate Change • There are no motor vehicles inside La Rinconada, only steep pedestrian streets or footpaths. So, everything must be carried in by miners from sacks of rice to personal computers.

La Rinconada - Andean Gold, Mercury and Climate Change • This blow torch actually has a flame so hot it is invisible, as it vaporizes toxic mercury used to isolate gold from ore.

La Rinconada - Andean Gold, Mercury and Climate Change • Balls of purified gold displayed in a tin.

La Rinconada - Andean Gold, Mercury and Climate Change • The first thing encountered when entering La Rinconada mine is an unregulated garbage dump high on the sensitive “pampilla” paramo ecosystem in the shadow of Mt. Ananea.

La Rinconada - Andean Gold, Mercury and Climate Change • Heaven meets Hell: Coming into La Rinconada, the highest permanent human settlement on the planet, on a rare, clear spring day showing the magnificent glaciers coating "La Bella Durmiente" ("Sleepy Beauty") on the lefthand ridge of Mt. Ananea.

Obesity & Malnutrition in Post-NAFTA Mexico • A man, who could be considered overweight waits for the light to change in Oaxaca. Mexico

Obesity & Malnutrition in Post-NAFTA Mexico • The door to American big box stores opened in 1996 with NAFTA. Since then, the Mexican retail market was altered forever the ubiquitous availability of cheap, sugary drinks and processed American junk food have significantly altered Mexicans' diets.

Obesity & Malnutrition in Post-NAFTA Mexico • A common sight: A woman who could be considered overweight on the beach at Puerto Vallarta.

Road Trip to Hokkaido • The riot of peak color with Hokkaido's maple trees in the Sounkyo Gorge Daisetsuzan National Park, the largest national park in Japan.

Road Trip to Hokkaido • Mt. Kurodake rises above the Ishikari River in Daisetsuzan National Park. H

Road Trip to Hokkaido • Fishermen's rops tied outside a wooden fishermen's shed in the isolated fishing village of Iwaoi, hemmed in by mountains on one side and the Sea of Japan on the other.

Road Trip to Hokkaido • Mt. Asahidake, the highest mountain of Hokkaido. This active volcano is part of Japan's largest national park, Daisetsuzan National Park and it in the region known to be the coldest in all Japan.