Photographer Muntaka Chasant has documented 1000’s of washed-up dresses on a beach in Africa, laying bare the environmental influence of rapid manner.
Chasant tells Petapixel that he took a “beating” from the waves in Ghana to capture the powerful and assumed-provoking images.
“I had to phase in the h2o to seize most of the scenes which gave me a thrashing,” explains Chasant.
“Documenting discarded unwanted outfits is component of my extensive-term concentrate on the geographies of waste — to highlight the environmental price and stress of quick fashion.”
The disturbing photographs taken in the Ghanaian money town of Accra, present large piles of sodden clothes strewn above the sand. A lot of of the objects are imagined to have been imported from the United States and the United Kingdom, as effectively as other rich nations.
Ghana is property to a thriving 2nd-hand dresses marketplace where unwanted Western outfits are shipped for resale and repurpose — but the African country is now having difficulties to cope with need.
The garments, regarded domestically as “Obroni W’awu” translated as “dead white man’s garments,” are donated by perfectly-indicating Westerners and locals will acquire them in the hope that they uncover a handful of great-excellent finds to promote on. Just about anything that they can’t market is dumped on the banking institutions of the Odaw River, which is unfortunately synonymous with air pollution.
As a lot as 40 per cent of the abandoned clothing that arrive in the West African condition conclude up remaining dumped in this way and the difficulty is worsening mainly because of novelty “one-off” outfits and minimal-high-quality quickly style products rising. It also has a knock-on outcome to Ghana’s personal textile and structure sectors with nearby traders not able to contend with the deluge of cheap garments coming in from abroad.
Environmental Photographer
Chasant made use of DJI Air 2s for the aerial shots and a Sony a7R III with a 24-105mm f/4 hooked up.
The Ghana-dependent documentary photographer focuses on “urban marginality, geographies of waste, human-ecosystem interaction, and new and rising problems.” He focuses on the city of Accra, exhibiting the environment the air pollution in areas these as the Korle Lagoon the place thousands of solitary-use plastic waste are dumped and seep into the ocean.
Take a look at Chasant’s web page to see more of his function.
Graphic credits: All photos by Muntaka Chasant.
