The Lessepsians

Moving image light boxes, photography, 2019

This series traces the quiet drift of species through the Suez Canal—a man-made passage where borders blur and ecosystems shift. These migrating beings, known as Lessepsian migrants, move from the Red Sea and Indian Ocean into the Mediterranean, carried not by intention, but by the unintended currents of human ambition. Named after Ferdinand de Lesseps, the canal’s architect, they are cast by science as invasive, even destructive—agents of an irreversible ecological transformation. But beneath the surface, their story speaks to movement, displacement, and the complex entanglements between nature and industry.

The Statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps erected at the entrance to the canal.* When President Nasser decided to seize ownership of the canal in 1956, the statue was removed, thus symbolizing the end of European domination over the waterway. A Silver-cheeked toadfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus), moves across the frame – a poisonous pufferfish, originating the from the Indian and Pacific Oceans, has recently spread across the Mediterranean.

*Found footage produced for Magazine Illustration no 2961,1899

Flagship of the British Battleship Pacific Fleet, passing through the Suez Canal en route to the Pacific Ocean in 1944.*Twospot Cardinalfish (Cheilipteriatus Novemstriatus) originating from the Indian and Western Pacific Ocean have now established themselves in the Levantine Sea swim across the frame. Their nocturnal capabilities may have facilitated their successful introduction as few native nocturnal marine species exist.

Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum ©TR2619.

Exhibition view, ‘My Dear Friends’ at DEPO Istanbul.