Gomma Photography Grant 2024
Ghana pollution of destitution, pollution of abundance
Photographer
Christian Barbé
Ghana pollution of destitution, pollution of abundance
20 Jan, 2025
The pollution of deprivation is that caused by poor people being poisoned by cooking their food with makeshift means on the outskirts of Accra's slaughterhouses. The pollution of abundance is the waste from Europe that piles up on the outskirts of shanty towns and on beaches. It's in Accra, it's in Ghana, it's all over Africa. Pollution of destitution - the slaughterhouses of Accra The thick, black smoke rising in the distance by the sea, just a stone's throw from the James Town district, is the Boday slaughterhouse. Tyres are a treasure: burning them removes the animal's hair, tenderises the skin, cooks the meat, reduces cooking time and is cheaper than wood or coal. Is it toxic? Pollution of abundance - a landfill, a beach in Accra Just a stone's throw from the centre of Accra, a shanty town called Old Fadama. Against the shantytown, a mountain. A mountain in Accra? People and animals are drawing their sustenance from the abundance of faraway societies. This is the new transhumance, where the animals and shepherds on the "Alpages of Accra" no longer move, but where the mountain is constantly renewed.
About the photographer
Christian Barbé
"Christian Barbé born in Deauville in 1970. For Christian Barbé, photography remains a pretext for travel, allowing him to capture moments present at the chance of encounters. When he photographs, we don't know whether he's fascinated by the scene unfolding before his eyes or whether he's simply trying to preserve it. As he wanders around different countries, he tries to capture the atmosphere of the place beyond the encounters. Deliberately, his images seem to trace a timeless reality, that of a tumultuous world where man is not far away. 2015 /2017 : Photographer reporter in the newspaper La tribune de Diego in Madagascar 2018 : 3rd prize at the Annecy Lac Photo Festival 2018 for the series "Altruism of a destitute population in front of mental illness" in Madagascar 2019 : Selected by the Dapper Foundation for the 12th edition of regards sur course on the island of Gorée in Senegal on the theme "against winds and tides". 2019 : Selected among the finalists for the Roger Pic award and the FIBA 2019 photographic competition. 2022 : Winner of the Grand Prix Photo de Saint Tropez 2022 2022 : Selected for the 5th edition of the Rabat Photographic Encounters on the theme "Mother Earth" with the series "Madagascar, men and trees ». 2022: Exhibition at the United Nations General Assembly Gallery in New York on climate change (finalist for the Photography 4 Humanity 2022 global award) 2024: Selected for the 2024 festival "l'Emoi photographique" in Angoulème on the theme "And tomorrow? with the series " Ukraine: culture in a cocoon” 2024: Selected for the Guilvinec Man and the Sea photo festival with the series "Les chineurs des mers" ("Sea hunters«)"
