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Permanent Error

By Pieter Hugo in Galleries —

On the outskirts of a Ghana slum, young people work in toxic conditions to extract metal from melted-down computers—technology that we've discarded, and shipped elsewhere for the dirty work of recycling.

Permanent Error

Interview by Rosecrans Baldwin

Pieter Hugo’s portraits from Ghana's Agbogbloshie dump depict a 21st-century pastoral badlands where children earn a living off our “our culture of obsolescence,” as Hugo says below, at great risk from toxic exposure. Read the interview ↓

“Permanent Error” will be on view at Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, Sept. 8 to Oct. 29, 2011. All images © Pieter Hugo, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York and Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town.

Yakubu Al Hasan, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Yakubu Al Hasan, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Yaw Francis, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Yaw Francis, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Untitled, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Untitled, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Untitled, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Untitled, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Al Hasan Abukari, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Al Hasan Abukari, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Amama Suleiman, Agbogbloshie Market, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Amama Suleiman, Agbogbloshie Market, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Abdulai Yahaya, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2010. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Abdulai Yahaya, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2010. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Untitled, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.
Untitled, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error by Pieter Hugo. Digital C-Print.

Artist interview

TMN: The scale of our electronic waste exported to places like Accra is astonishing. How did Agbogbloshie come to your attention?

Pieter Hugo: I saw a photo of the dump site in a National Geographic article on recycling.

TMN: What was your response when you visited for the first time?

PH: It is a very strange, surreal place, where time seems suspended.

TMN: What did the people working there tell you about the pit?

PH: The people who work there are dependent on the income from the pit. They didn’t really have time to sit and discuss the nuances of what they do or their view on it. Many of the children who work there are from extremely impoverished areas in Ghana and are grateful to be earning money, and are supporting extended families with their meagre income.

TMN: You tend to work in the same format when making portraits. Did this series influence the way you view the technology you use?

PH: Very much so. I am definitely more conscious about our culture of obsolescence.