The Carmignac Photojournalism Prize reveals the investigative work of the winners of its 13th edition, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Muntaka Chasant and Bénédicte Kurzen, focusing on e-waste in Ghana. This photographic series highlights the disturbing reality of the impact of electronic waste in this African country.
From February 2023 to February 2024, thanks to the financial and human support of the Carmignac Foundation, the winners conducted a transnational investigation from Ghana to Europe to document this issue. The collaborative reportage will be exhibited in three different locations: at the Solférino harbour, Quai Anatole-France (May 16 – June 16), at the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation (MRO) (July 1 – September 29), and at the United Nations headquarters in summer 2024.
In 2022, the world generated 62 million tonnes of electronic waste, a figure set to rise to the 82 million tonnes forecast by 2030. This waste, mainly from Europe and the United States, is illegally dumped in West African ports, leading to a proliferation of illegal dumps, particularly in Ghana. The Carmignac Prize, which supports investigative photography and journalism on human rights violations and geostrategic issues, focuses on the situation in Ghana.
The investigation led by anti-corruption journalist and activist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, and photojournalists Muntaka Chasant and Bénédicte Kurzen, winners of the Carmignac 2022 Photojournalism Prize, began in the alarming context of e-waste management in Ghana.
These artists and activists took a different approach to the usually dramatic media narrative on Ghana. Over the course of a year, they have vigorously documented this complex and uneven environment. Their approach combines a local and global perspective to analyze the flow of electronic waste between Europe and Ghana, revealing the complexity and opacity of this globalized network. Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Muntaka Chasant and Bénédicte Kurzen highlight the paradox of the e-waste economy, underlining both the opportunities it offers many Ghanaians and its devastating impact on people and the environment.
Each winner approached the survey in a unique way. Exploring the world of second-hand electronics in Ghana and Europe, Bénédicte Kurzen documented the flows of e-waste and the players involved, challenging negative preconceptions about exporters and highlighting the shortcomings of European bureaucracy when it comes to e-waste management.
Muntaka Chasant’s engagement in Accra with an in-depth sociological study of the e-waste economy, highlighting the communities that depend on it, offers an essential insight into the social issues surrounding this activity. Her analysis reveals the social hierarchy and migratory mechanisms that underpin the exploitation of e-waste in Ghana, particularly the migration of communities from the country’s northeast.
For his part, Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his team infiltrated Accra’s ports to track the legal and illegal flow of e-waste. Their clandestine approach, using GPS beacons implanted in illegal waste, sheds light on the tactics used to circumvent the law and the corruption orchestrated to move this waste in transit, both in Europe and in Ghana.
The results of the Carmignac 2022 Prize investigations, which will be presented in the form of exhibitions, promise to offer a rich and innovative perspective on the issues facing contemporary society, approached from an artistic point of view. The exhibitions, accompanied by a bilingual French-English catalog co-edited by the Fondation Carmignac and Reliefs Editions, are scheduled for publication in July 2024. This collaboration reflects a shared desire to highlight, through powerful photographs and texts, Ghana’s contemporary challenges in an enlightening and engaging way.
