It takes a moment to fully grasp what you’re seeing in Edoardo Delille and Giulia Piermartiri’s photographs of the Maldives. In one picture, a sea turtle appears to swim beside a couple on a motorbike; in another, a family of five pose in the hallway of their home, apparently standing beneath a diver floating in full scuba gear.

Appropriated from tourist snaps taken underwater in the Indian Ocean, the engulfing images allude to the scenario scientists believe could play out by the end of the century, if the climate crisis isn’t promptly addressed. With an average elevation of just one meter (3.3 feet) above sea level, the Maldives is the world’s lowest-lying country and therefore at substantial risk. Some reports predict that by 2050, 80% of its land could become uninhabitable if sea leve

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