Fotofestival Zürich : Open Your Eyes

Working to Survive In an e-waste dump that kills nearly everything that it touches in Ghana, West Africa, Fati, 8, works with other children searching through hazardous waste in hopes of finding whatever she can to exchange for pennies in order to survive. While balancing a bucket on her head with the little metal she has found, tears stream down her face as the result of the pain that comes with the malaria she contracted some years ago. This is work she must do to survive. Photograph © Renée C. Byer

CP Group’s chicken facility processes 120 million chickens per year (today 200,000, pre-holiday periods up to 400,000) with over 2,000 employees working a single eight hour shift. 90% of their chicken is for domestic consumption, and 10% for other parts of Asia. All parts of the chickens are used, even the chicken fat is used in paint, and the feathers are processed into powder for animal food. The internal organs, feet and heads are sold for human consumption. This facility supplies most of the major fast food brands in China, including McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, etc. © George Steinmetz

Hanna Braun, born 1919 Hanna dreams of a flight to the Balearic Islands. But before she would entrust herself and her dream to a young pilot and a rickety holiday plane, it would be better to take matters into her own hands. After all, all it takes only a little courage and probably a private lesson or two. © Esther Haase

Minsk, Belarus, 2005. Suffering from thyroid cancer, Oleg Shapiro, 54, and Dima Bogdanovich, 13, receive care at a thyroid hospital in Minsk, where surgery is performed daily. As a liquidator, Oleg was exposed to extreme levels of radiation. This was his third thyroid operation. Dima’s mother claims that Chernobyl’s nuclear fallout is responsible for her son’s cancer, but Belarusian officials are often instructed to downplay the severity of the radiation. © Gerd Ludwig

Blaise dreams of being like Michael Jackson. He is twelve years old and lives in Haiti with his seven brothers and one sister. After the terrible 2010 earthquake he suffered from bad nightmares, but he has managed to overcome his anxiety. He wants to become a mechanic or a chauffeur. Blaise says, “Well, I dream of so many things. If I really had to choose, I would dither. If I were rational, I would become a chauffeur. But to be like Michael Jackson would be much more exciting. It is so difficult for me to decide.” © Chris De Bode

Conical ice stupas serve as water towers, storing winter meltwater for spring planting. The youth group that built this one in the northern indian village of Gya also installed a café in its base. They used the proceeds to take village elders on a pilgrimage. © Ciril Jazbec

Luzinterruptus, an anonymous art collective from Madrid, creates installations all over the world using plastic waste. Their recent display in Madrid’s famous fountains showcased a day’s worth of the city’s plastic trash, emphasising its impact to the public. © Randy Olson

© Maryam Firuzi

Jane Goodall & Jou Jou Brazzaville, Republik Kongo | Congo © Michael Nichols

La Yaguara Center of Detention, CARACAS – March, 2018. Women in this preventive detention centre navigate their days amidst unsettling inactivity. They modify their confined cell, striving to create semblances of home. Activities range from penning letters or sketching for their children, engaging with the Bible, sharing cigarettes, or straightening their hair. © Ana María Arévalo Gosen

Burn #9. Canada, 2015. Fires are getting bigger, more violent, and more uncontrollable – and what’s known as the “burn season” has, in many parts of the world, gone from being a summertime event to being year-round. Fire scientists are constantly studying the dynamics of heat, fuel, and weather in the hopes of better understanding a force that is becoming more and more uncontrollable. This scene is at a prescribed research burn near Fort Providence, Northwest Territories, Canada. © James Balog

BRICK WORKERS, INDIA. Debt bondage can trap entire families for generations. Brick kiln owners lend workers a small sum of money for an emergency like a funeral or medical problem, charging exorbitant interest rates, and when the workers cannot pay it back, they are forced to work off their debt as slaves — and the debt can be passed on to their children. © Jodi Cobb

Professor Shaul Paul Ladany, born 1936 in Yugoslavia. Survivor of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and in 1972, the Israeli Olympic athlete survived the Munich massacre. World record holder for long distance speed walking. © Tsafrir Abayov

Reclamation © Shana Robert und ParkeHarrison

Syria © Goran Tomašević

Southern stingray glides across the waved raked sands of North Sound Grand Cayman island. © David Doubilet

“By nature, Hatsune Miku, cannot talk or move. But her value is, that she represents the encounter between what some people want to share and what some others want to receive”, remarks Mr Hiroyuki, the president of the company that developed Hatsune Miku. And Qianye Weilai, 27 years old, Chinese cosplayer: “I feel sometimes the public can’t accept me in the real world. But online it’s different. I have about 200 000 fans on Weibo.” © Jerome Gence

Open Your Eyes