In March 2020, I joined the Office of the President of the United Nations General Assembly on a deployment to Fiji, as President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande met communities on the frontline of climate change. The visit took in the Suva Market, where UN Women's Markets for Change program supports the women vendors at the heart of the market, and Vusama, a low-lying coastal village where rising seas are already reshaping daily life, before ending at the Vunato settlement in Lautoka.
Working alongside producer Chloe Ross, it was a fast-moving official program, with the President's schedule setting the pace and little time to linger in any one place. I shot on the Sony FS5 and used the drone to show how close these homes sit to the water, the image that tells the story of a sinking settlement better than any interview could. It was also one of the last trips I made before the pandemic shut down international travel only days later.
