The 13th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award is dedicated to Ghana and the ecological and human challenges associated with the transboundary flow of electronic waste. The award was granted to a team made up of investigative anti-corruption journalist and activist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and photojournalists Muntaka Chasant and Bénédicte Kurzen (NOOR). From February 2023 to February 2024, thanks to the human and financial support of the Fondation Carmignac, the laureates carried out a transnational field study between Ghana and Europe.
E-WASTE TODAY
62 million tons. This is the volume of electrical and electronic waste – discarded battery- or mains-powered products, commonly known as «e-waste» – generated worldwide in 2022, according to the latest Global E-Waste Monitor Report published by the United Nations. The number of smartphones, connected watches, flat screens, computers and tablets being thrown away continues to rise (82% increase since 2010), making them not only one of the world’s biggest sources of waste, but also the most valuable (containing precious metals like gold, silver and platinum group metals). According to the study, if this trend continues, in the absence of sustainable recycling or repair solutions, global electronic waste will reach 82 million metric tons by 2030. In 2022, of the 62 million tons of e-waste, only 22,3 % were collected and recycled in a dedicated channel.*
Having long invaded Asia (Russia, India, China, etc.), e-waste from Europe and the United States is arriving in extensive quantities in the ports of West African countries such as Ghana, in violation of international treaties. A country renowned for its political stability and respect for a multi-party system, Ghana is faced with the proliferation of informal open-air landfill sites even closer to homes, after the dismantling of the Agbogbloshie scrapyard site in July 2021.
* The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have joined forces in the Global E-waste Statistics Partnership (GESP) to publish the Global E-Waste Monitor 2024, with the support of the Fondation Carmignac.
It can be found at this link: https://globalewaste.org/ (published 20 March 2024)
THE LAUREATES’ REPORT
It was against this backdrop that began the investigation by Anas Aremeyaw Anas and photojournalists Muntaka Chasant and Bénédicte Kurzen, which combines photography, video, audio recordings and writing. Departing from the dramatic imagery often used by the media to portray Ghana as «the dustbin of the world», they spent a year documenting this incredibly ambiguous and complex ecosystem, which is both a crucial economic opportunity for thousands of people in Ghana and has a considerable human and environmental impact. Together, combining a national and international approach, the team studied the ramifications of e-waste trafficking between Europe and Ghana, revealing the opacity of this globalised cycle.
Delving into the complex world of second-hand electronics in Ghana and Europe, Bénédicte Kurzen documented the e-waste flows and the communities that activate them, challenging negative stereotypes of exporters and highlighting the inefficiency of European e-waste bureaucracy. At the other end of the chain, in Accra, the capital of Ghana, researcher and documentary photographer Muntaka Chasant immersed himself in a sociological analysis of
this economy on which many communities depend. With precision, he analyses the social groups of e-waste workers, revealing a hierarchical organisation and the mechanisms of migration from north-east Ghana. With his team, Anas Aremeyaw Anas infiltrated the ports of Accra to reveal the legal and illegal flows of e-waste. Working undercover, and using trackers implanted in illegal waste, he unmasks the strategies and corruption that enable people to circumvent the law, both in Europe and in Ghana.
EXHIBITIONS
The collaborative report by Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Muntaka Chasant and Bénédicte Kurzen will become the focus of three exhibitions.
PARIS – May 16 to June 16, 2024, in partnership with the City of Paris
Port de Solférino, Quai Anatole France (opposite the Musée d’Orsay), 75007 Paris
Free admission
A day of panels devoted to e-waste will be organised in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
ARLES – July 1st to September 29th, 2024
Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation (MRO), 18 rue de la Calade, 13200 Arles
Free admission with the Rencontres d’Arles Pass – full price €6
NEW YORK – June 27 – August 31, 2024, in partnership with UNITAR
United Nations Headquarters, Visitors’ Lobby, Gallery A, 1st Avenue at 46th Street, New York, NY 10017
Free admission
https://www.fondationcarmignac.com/en/photojournalism-award/
