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Ghana: pollution of the shortage, pollution of abundance

Head On Photo Festival 2024
Christian Barbé
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Christian Barbé
This event has concluded
Dates: -
Location: Paddington Reservoir Gardens, 251-255 Oxford St, Paddington NSW, Australia
Hours:
Entry Fee: Free
Genres: Photojournalism/Documentary

Pollution of destitution – the slaughterhouses of Accra, Ghana.

Thick, black smoke billows from the Boday slaughterhouse, tucked away near the James Town district of Accra. Though hidden from view, it plays a vital role in the local economy. Here, they cook goat, beef, mutton, and pork on tyres before selling them in the market. Burning tyres removes hair, tenderises skin, reduces cooking time and is cheaper than wood or coal. Is it toxic? Observation from the rich!

Pollution of abundance – a landfill, a beach in Accra

Nearby lies Old Fadama, a shanty town with a twenty-metre-high mountain of used clothes, plastics, computer waste, and organic detritus. Here, people and animals rely on the discarded remnants of distant societies, marking a new form of transhumance where the mountain is continuously replenished.

On the beach, children scavenge through the waves, searching for treasures among the plastic and metal debris swept in by the surf. This ‘garbage beach’ is known as a place of wealth to the locals. One day, a child sits on the sand, dreamily typing on a computer keyboard washed ashore. Could its previous owner ever have imagined it would travel across oceans to end up in the Gulf of Guinea?

The pollution of deprivation and the pollution of abundance – it’s in Ghana; it’s all over Africa. It is the shadow of our civilisations.

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Christian Barbé

Christian Barbé was born in Deauville, France, in 1970 and currently lives in Paris.

After studying philosophy, he undertook internships in a professional development and printing laboratory, where he learned the basics of photography. At the same time, he worked as a photojournalist for the newspaper La Tribune de Diego in Madagascar from 2015 to 2017. He takes the path of emotion to capture the moment of an encounter – an emotion that he tries to capture through uncluttered photos that are poetic and aesthetic. Each photo translates beyond words what is most remarkable in everyday life.

Christian’s award-winning work has been shown at international festivals and the United Nations.

This event has concluded
Dates: -
Location: Paddington Reservoir Gardens, 251-255 Oxford St, Paddington NSW, Australia
Hours:
Entry Fee: Free
Genres: Photojournalism/Documentary
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Stephen Godfrey

Head On in a day

Australia's world-leading photography festival once again filters photography down to its finest. The great thing is that Head On's main venues at Bondi and Paddington are just a bus ride away.

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Enthralling. Enchanting. Extraordinary. Discover exceptional photography for free around Sydney during the festival 8 Nov–1 Dec 2024

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