Deanna Nokes
Exhibition Review
Faces of Education
I visited Pieter Hugo’s Permanent Error exhibition at the Yossi Milo Gallery. Hugo photographed, “Agbogloshie, a massive dump site for technological waste on the outskirts of Ghana’s capital city.”(Artist statement)
I noticed that most of his photographs showed a single boy in the center of the picture, looking directly at the camera with destruction all around him. The photo that stood out to me was the photo of the young boy in the red beanie with iPod headphones. It appears as though the iPod itself is tucked into the red beanie. He seems to have a Captain Morgan rum commercial-styled pose with one leg bent and propped up. Behind him are smoke, fire and young boys walking right through it.
In each photo, it appears as though there is no beauty for miles. Everything is dead, broken, on fire, charred and black. There are no buildings, no houses, and no smiles on any faces. The boy in the red beanie is standing with his arms crossed appearing tough and uncaring. He is wearing flip-flops and a nice watch. He can’t be more than 15 years old.
In Pieter Hugo’s statement, he talks about why Agbogloshie looks the way it does. It has become a major dump site for all of our old cell phones, computers, game boys, pagers, Nintendo’s, watches, etc. All of these were sent to Agbogloshie as “donations” from the West. Families from nearby towns send their sons who, “burn down the components to extract bits of copper, brass, aluminum and zinc for resale.”(Artist statement) These “donations” aren’t helping the people of Agbogbloshie. Instead, the burning down of the technological waste is poisoning their water and soil, and eventually their health.
My other favorite was a close-up photo. It showed a very dark boy kneeling down with sweat running down his face. I think one of the reasons that Pieter’s photos are so powerful is because all of his subjects are staring directly into the camera. When the viewer is looking at the photos it feels like they are making eye contact with the boys. Something about the picture of the boy kneeling made me so incredibly sad. The bags under his eyes and the sweat running down his face just show how painful the work he has to do. His eyes seem to be asking for help but have a mix of hopelessness. This museum made me feel both helpless and guilty, for not knowing his story, for feeling like there is nothing I can do to help. I wanted to reach out and hug the kneeling boy. I wanted to take him out of that situation. Then I thought, even if I could help the kneeling boy, what about the rest of the boys? And once again, I felt even more helpless.
I also recognize how incredible it is that a photograph can make me feel all of these mixed emotions. I think it would be difficult for me to photograph something like that without wanting to step in and change it. Pieter’s photographs wouldn’t be so powerful if he had intervened. It is the photographer’s job to photograph what is really going on and show the unaltered truth.
