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The Guardian

Life on landfill: the people who scrape a living from our waste

Poisoned Futures? features the works of three internationally acclaimed female photographers and examines how past industrial practices, colonial legacies and extractive mindsets continue to shape our world. In this 2018 image by Gulshan Khan, birds scavenge from the waste at Robinson Deep, Johannesburg's largest landfill. The exhibition, Poisoned Futures? is at Hundred Heroines in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, until 28 September The three artists explore the connections between climate crisis, environmental justice and human survival. In this image by Khan, a reclaimer pulls his load of waste on a trolley into Mudimu Recycling, a buy-back centre in Selby, Johannesburg, to be weighed and sold Reclaimers Micheal Morosi (left) and Johannes Matona at Mudimu Recycling, Johannesburg. 'My projects have always arisen from some sort of gap I see, something I feel strongly about that needs highlighting or commenting on' 'The work needs to be reflective of the people and the times, in both private and public, as well as institutional spaces, so that we no longer suffer the erasure and blindness of misrepresentation inflicted on us by oppressive systems and structures. I hope that we can build a more just and equal world' A reclaimer at Johannesburg's largest landfill. Reclaimers complain of not having adequate protective clothing and as a result suffering infections and other health issues. The day this was taken, Khan nearly stepped on a cow's head This series, on the physical toll the quest for clean water takes on women in Malawi, was originally commissioned by WaterAid and Wimbledon Foundation. It's title is a phrase used in Malawi meaning little by little. This image is of Margaret Tobias, 35, who has four children, and fetches water four times a day. 'While grounded in real-world narratives, my approach is guided by a lyrical way of seeing and shaped by a desire to evoke rather than explain' A girl carries a basin of hot water to the bathroom to take a bath before going to school. 'I draw inspiration from music, poetry, and impressionistic art forms, allowing intuition to shape my storytelling and inviting audiences to engage with their own thoughts and experiences' Jacqueline Aron, 14, stands in the doorway of the kitchen while she waits for her bath water to heat up before school Enala Etifala 19, with her baby. Malawi is one of the smallest and least-developed countries in Africa. Although it has an abundance of water, including Lake Malawi – the third-largest freshwater lake on the continent – one in three people live without access to clean water. Considered a domestic chore, the responsibility of securing water falls predominantly on the shoulders of women 'My work is concerned with stereotypes, racism and the construction of the gaze,' says Ponger, who lives and works in Vienna, 'involving photography, film, installation and text material' Ponger works across a variety of disciplines and recently set up with Hundred Heroines a weekly online film festival showing short films made by or about women Ponger says this staged photograph from 2001 'seems to function as a table of contents for my work ever since' 'I interrogate the entangled legacies of extraction, imperialism and global capital to highlight how historical and contemporary systems of power continue to shape uneven geographies of suffering and privilege'