Photo essay:
Christian Thompson - Waste
(C) Christian Thompson
More often than not photographs do need captions, but in the case of Christian Thompson's visual documentation of the waste problem facing Ghana, these pictures speak for themselves. The west continues to send its waste to foreign shores, and what isn't delivered in containers on ships (which is a huge energy resource drain), washes up on the beaches. And we are all complicit. It is time to stop producing so many things that can't be fixed or can't be safely recycled. Consumption is killing the planet, and its people. For all the things we know today, and for the amazing leaps in technology, we as a species are irrefutably stupid, greedy and bent on our own destruction.
And it is not like we haven't seen images of this kind before. The late, great Stanley Greene's brilliant series on eWaste sent shivers down my spine, especially when he told me how ill he felt shooting in these confined, toxic spaces. But still, he continued to work convinced the world needed to see.
(C) Stanley Greene - India
Greene is not the only one to risk his own health in order to expose these stories.
In India, China and Tibet UK photojournalist Sean Gallagher has documented the environmental degradation caused by industry and mining on the environment.
(C) Sean Gallagher - Tibetan Plateau
Russian photojournalist Vlad Sokhin has photographed communities in the Pacific at risk of disappearing with the rising of the ocean, such as Kiribati.
(C) Vlad Sokhin - Kiribati in the central Pacific ocean
And Canadian Edward Burtynsky has shown the ravages of mining on the landscape.
(C) Edward Burtynsky
These are just a few of the dedicated photographers turning their lens on one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issue to face humankind this century, the destruction of our planet. We have the visual and scientific evidence. Where is the social and political will? As these photos show, we are not doing enough.
(C) Christian Thompson
(C) Christian Thompson
(C) Christian Thompson
(C) Christian Thompson
Entries Open:
Bob and Diane Fund
(C) Maja Daniels
Swedish photographer Maja Daniels was the inaugural grantee of the Bob and Diane Fund Grant created last year by Gina Martin in memory of her parents. In an interview with the New York Times in 2016, Daniels said that she spent a year getting to know the staff and the relatives of patients at the St. Thomas de Villeneuve hospital in Bain-de-Bretagne, France. It was only after developing these close relationships that she picked up her camera. Over the next two years, she photographed those living with Alzheimer Disease or dementia. The result is Into Oblivion, a beautiful, poignant and very human story, told from the heart.
The grant round for next year opens on 1 September, 2017. You can find out more here.
(C) Maja Daniels
(C) Maja Daniels
(C) Maja Daniels
(C) Maja Daniels
Black Lines - Group Show
This exhibition which is currently on at Blackeye Gallery in Sydney’s Darlinghurst features an eclectic selection of photographs that focus on the built environment.
The show includes works by Chris Round, David Manley, Tom Evangelidis, Rob Tuckwell, Tom Blachford, Damien Drew, Rhiannon Slatter, Chris Walters, Terrence Chin, Luc Remond, Rodrigo Vargas, Gary Sheppard, Vin Rathod, Jade Cantwell, Richard Glover and Kate Ballis.
It’s an engaging collection that shows the photographers' individual approaches and perspectives in capturing our urban environments.
(C) David Manley
(C) Chris Round
(C) Tom Evangelidis
