Last month, a friend who works at Climate Central, a non-profit that acts as a clearinghouse for information about climate change, asked me to shoot an image for the cover of a new scientific report that would be distributed in Copenhagen. We had less than a week to cast a set of identical twin girls, pull together a crew willing to work pro bono, location scout, pull wardrobe, and shoot. We did it! (Though sadly, we could not get 30+ scientists to agree to use a narrative image rather than a graph as the report cover.)

The gist of the image is that 10 years ago, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its last major report (for which the authors won a Nobel), they all thought sea levels would only rise about 13″ by 2100.  Since then, based on new evidence and observations, they now fear seas will rise 33″ by the end of the century.  Our task was to create a dramatic image illustrating the difference.

Huge thanks are owed to the models and crew: Cuffy, Fiona, and Verity Sullivan (the twins and their mom), Skip Terpstra (1st), Christina Sheldon (stylist), Mitchell Powers (video), Valentin Sivyakov (retouching), Randi Arroyo (hair and make-up), and Jason Leach, Lauren Lanier, and Jennifer Hathorn (photo assistants).

Mitchell Powers produced, shot, and edited this behind the scenes video of the shoot.  Thanks are owed to Jerry Colburn for use of the music.