Storytelling in the wasteland

Agbogbloshie is an e-waste dump in Ghana, and it’s well known as a horrendous case study in irresponsible waste. NGOs and charities send photographers to document it for campaigns, and it is described as a hell on earth, or ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’. It is visually stark, almost unimaginably polluted. As an utterly destroyed landscape, it makes for iconic photography.

“I noticed that they use our photos to tell stories,” says Abdallah, a local youth worker, observing all these visiting photographe...