#UNCTAD15
Photo exhibition
“From inequality and vulnerability to prosperity for all”
The hands trade passes through
Exhibition Statement
Curator: Lekgetho Makola
Trade makes the world go around. Development is the dividend, and this helps humanity. But trade is often unseen or unacknowledged in a world where we expect goods to simply just arrive on our doorsteps. Yet there is nothing more ancient or human than the act of exchange. The human face of trade is evident in this curated body of photographic work entitled “The hands trade passes through”. This body of work is edited from a large selection of images submitted by professional photographers, tourists, community members, activists and NGO officials in developing countries. This dynamic curation profiles working-class societies at work and in-trade with such respect and dignity. The images dignify the human nature of trade at the grassroots of communities and nations. Photography, as a highly effective communication tool, empowers developing nations and people with more freedoms to document, reflect and represent their own voices and aspirations widely. It enables them to bring dignity back into their often disenfranchised and degraded human integrities as framed in photographic images of the past, mainly documented by outsiders.
This photographic exhibition narrates with such tremendous honesty and local aesthetic the ambitious cause and call, “From inequality and vulnerability to prosperity for all", the theme of UNCTAD’s 15th quadrennial conference held from 3 to 7 October. This cause also signifies the contribution of technology in the democratization of equal access to photography tools and the easier distribution of photographic images on online platforms. In this, we begin to experience a different character of images that are more sensitive to the subject matters and the human beings they represent.
This selection of images that documents the everyday life and plight of humans engaging in trade activities offers us a new and exciting visual entry point into experiencing modes of production and forms of trade that are as old as the human story. The agency embedded in them calls on all of us to recognize and regard all trade in all corners of the globe as one dynamic human condition.
The exhibition contains the soul and essence of our collective humanity through impactful aesthetic expressions and diverse visual storytelling. “The hands trade passes through” is the bridge that gives all of us free access to each other as global citizens with shared visions.
Discover the selected photographs
#1
Building a sustainable future
In this photo, a woman is seen making traditional clay pots which is an alternative for many plastic products while helping her son in his studies using solar lights. Affordable renewable energy has made it possible to access low-cost electricity anywhere. This photo was taken in a village of West Bengal, India where people usually don't get access to electricity at most times of the day. In this scenario, women in rural parts of India have widely adopted these technologies like solar lamps that not only help them to contribute economically to the family but also balance the environment.
#2
Tales by moonlight: love and light
The children captured in this image are born in the 21st century but live in the 18th century. Meeting someone with a laptop willing to play and share with them made them extremely happy, gave them a feel of what access to technology is. I was indeed moved by how what many take for granted was able to bring so much joy to the little ones. I sincerely hope that in the not too distant future, everyone will have access to civility, basic infrastructure and everything that gives comfort in this modern age, then, we would have truly moved from vulnerability and inequality to prosperity for all.
#3
Coffee farm in Zambia
Pickers remove unripe or overripe coffee beans and foreign debris from their daily harvest to prepare it for weighing at the Mubuyu Farm, Zambia. The Mubuyu farm is the largest producer of coffee in Zambia and the only private one. It belongs to Willem Lublinkhof who came to the country 45 years ago with the Dutch development service. Because coffee products are not very popular among Zambians, the bulk of them goes for export. There are 65 hectares of land under the coffee plantation today instead of 300 hectares in 2009. The manager of the coffee production Monday Chilanga says that the main reason for the reduction is very low coffee prices.
#4
Shadow of Life
'Sumri', a fisher women from Chandrabali, Odisha in India collecting sea shells on the estuary of River Subarnarekha and Bay of Bengal, which she sells to local artisans for the use of making shell jewellery, boxes, lampshades, pen stands, key rings and other artefacts. She is a single mother of two daughters and lives with her brother who is also a fisherman.
#5
Colours of earth and fire: Where tradition and beauty collide
The Dharavi slum, world-renowned as the backdrop in the British film Slumdog Millionaire is a city within a city, and home to more than a million people. Dharavi has a large number of small-scale industries that produce embroidered garments, export quality leather goods, pottery and plastic. Most of these products are sold in Indian as well as international markets. People in Dharavi slum in Mumbai work hard, producing mostly recycled articles and pottery. The postures of these two women at the local pottery store, taking a short break for conversation, express dignity, while the colours of their saris perfectly blend with the scenery.
#6
Making bamboo based cottage product
This image was taken in a rural village in Narsingdhi, Bangladesh, and captures a woman drafting a bamboo-based cottage product at home. In Bangladesh many urban women get trained by NGOs and start to make their own products. Bamboo and rattan are ideal resources for development and can help support poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. Bamboo-based cottage industries provide economic opportunities for the poor or the middle-income section of people through employment and income generation schemes all over the world, and especially in low income and technologically underdeveloped countries such as Bangladesh.
#7
Flower market at Jagannath Ghat
The biggest ever flower market in the city Kolkata where several hundreds of growers (large, medium and small) visit every day all year round from far-away rural places to sell their flowers, adding millions of revenue per week to the turn-over of this industry. Some of them also offer a supply of ceremonial bouquets and garlands, for which the demand soars during festival and wedding seasons. Flowers are also transported through specially designed containers to far-off states of almost 1800-1900kms away from this place and such is the dimension of this place that it has earned a status of a must-stopover in world tourist guides.
#8
Tea for you, tea for me, tea for everybody
Rose Njeri plucking tea in an estate owned by both her husband and her in Makomboki, Murang'a County, Kenya, explains the personal benefits: “Due to plucking on other tea estates, I earn between 2,000-2,500 Kenyan shillings (20-25 dollars) which I have been saving for the past 6 months to buy an extra piece of land that has tea.”
Tea is weighed and prepared at the Kimunye Tea Collection Centre, Kirinyaga County, Kenya. Here a truck driver, Lucy Muthoni Ngare, (L), as she cross-checks information with a tea plucker, Rose Njeri, (C) after submitting one sack of green-leaf at Kimunye tea buying Centre. The bag is weighed by a tea loader, Samuel Wanjohi, (R), who assists Lucy in picking the bags at designated green-leaf buying centres. Each tea plucker receives payments according to the kilos of green-leaf submitted to the buying centres and bought by Kimunye Tea Factory.
Tea loaders assist in weighing and loading green-leaf at collection centres to transport them back to the factory for processing. Samuel Wanjohi receives a sack of green-leaf from Isaac Muiithi and the Kimunye Tea Collection Centre, Kirinyaga County, Kenya.
#9
Organic farming practices promote climate resilience
In the unprecedented times of pandemic, poverty has increased. People across the world have suffered and struggled to survive. Simultaneously, climate change has an adverse impact on agricultural output that affects the socio-economic conditions of all people. Climate-resilient organic farming is the beginning of a new journey to increase crop productivity and even reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The need of the hour is that farmers should adopt and implement climate-resilient smart agricultural farming techniques. Self-sufficiency reduces poverty and promotes prosperity for all people on planet earth.
#10
Returning Home after Fish Collection
In this photo a woman is returning home after collecting fish from a river. She will sell these fish to the market and support her family. The fisheries sector can also contribute to the pro-poor goals directly by providing employment (as fishers and other related trade) and a source of livelihood. The entire fisheries sector supports the livelihoods of more than 18 million people in Bangladesh. About 1.4 million women depend on the fisheries sector for their livelihoods.
Jute Cultivation
A woman harvests her jute crop in Manikganj, Bangladesh, where local households make income from this fibrous plant. Jute growing is particularly suited to the poor. Women figure particularly prominently across all levels of the jute industry – as farm laborers and mill workers, and as small business women and employees making and selling jute products. Known as the golden fiber jute has been traditionally cultivated in the Bengal delta for many years. Around 33 per cent of all jute comes from Bangladesh, making it the world’s second largest jute producer. Production of jute is highly labor-intensive, creating seasonal employment for 48,000 women on the land.
#11
From the field to the market
In Ethiopia, women are obliged to tend the crop. This woman has been weeding her barley farm crop in the north of Ethiopia outside Menz Guassa city. The Guassa Community Conservation Area (GCCA) is one of the oldest known common property resource management areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has been the focus of an indigenous natural resource management institution for over 400 years. The high-altitude Afro-Alpine Festuca grassland, or “Guassa” grass gives the area its name. The people of Guassa usually farm wheat and barley.
#12
Mom Zondi's Chicken Business
Mom Happiness Zondi owns a chicken business in Kliptown, Soweto in South Africa. She's been running this business for over 15 year now. Here she’s pictured with a cleansed chicken that is sold for R150 (about $10) and she makes a living by farming chickens and selling them on a daily basis.
The home of development: Matsila Village, Venda
Three women sit and work. Pictured here are MM Rebobombo, YS Malukele and Joyce Mashaba, women that are part of the Matsila community development trust incubation programme in the Village of Matsila. These images were shot during a collaboration feature with South African journalist Poloko Tau. Read the story.
#13
Dream-Weaver
'Kantha' is one of the oldest forms of embroidery/textile craft in the eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, typically made up of discarded garments or clothes. 'Ruhina Bibi' and her group of rural housewives and ladies in Birbhum District of West Bengal use this running stitch based embroidery techniques to create quilts, garments such as sarees, dhotis and handkerchiefs to run their family on their own independently.
#14
Market on a boat - the floating vegetable market
This is the unique “floating market” on the water of Dal Lake, Kashmere, where vegetables are cultivated and grown on the floating landmasses of the lake. These vegetables are uniquely grown without any synthetic fertilisers during 3-4 months of extreme-cold, the area including these floating-fields are completely covered in thick-ice which provides necessary nutrients to the soil. These enriched soils afterwards yield fresh green and absolutely organic vegetables, which are in high demand among the visiting tourists, hotels and other community members. The automatic soil enrichment process, by the seasonal transition of climate, contributes to the sustainability of this notable business which in turn drives tourism to this place. The floating market is one of the few places where the barter system is still practiced in India along with partial adoption of the traditional exchange system with the local traders. However, the modern currency system is also accepted when trade happens between tourists and willing vendors.
#15
A smile on the farm - the happy farmer
In Ethiopia, women are obliged to tend the crop. This woman stands proud with her barley yield. The Guassa Community Conservation Area (GCCA) is one of the oldest known common property resource management areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has been the focus of an indigenous natural resource management institution for over 400 years. The high-altitude Afro-Alpine Festuca grassland, or “Guassa” grass gives the area its name. The people of Guassa usually farm wheat and barley.
#16
Sewing: A powerful weapon for women’s empowerment
A rural woman trainee of Rajasthan Samgrah Kalyan Sansthan's Sewing Vocational School(RSKS)learning how to stitch beautiful dresses. She is learning advanced tailoring. In this sewing vocational school, she is being taught by RSKS master trainer both theoretically and practically. She wants to help her family financially by learning this skill. In future she will be able to earn for her family through this skill and will be able to become self reliant. RSKS India thinks that sewing is a weapon for the rural girls who want to achieve self dependency by doing some work.
#17
Doing what I can to help feed my family
A woman carries her produce to a market stall in Yunan Province, China. She and her husband have a small plot of land in the city of Weishan in Yunan Province, China. They harvest the produce in the early morning and she brings the crops to the larger market in Weishan where she sets out a blanket on the ground, displays the vegetables and hopefully sells them all. It’s a very hard life. The load is so heavy that the pole arches under its weight. She’s looking down at the vegetables hoping they will not fall out. There is a small bottle of water in the basket that she will use to sprinkle the vegetables to keep them fresh.
#18
Grandmother of trade
Elderly woman selling melons at a free market on the outskirts of Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
#19
Work on the Nile River
Some of the young men work on the banks of the Nile in Egypt selling some handicrafts that their wives make at home, where the world of trade within the river represents a large world of buying and selling and the river represents for their part of their daily life.
#20
New technologies in trade
A participant of the China-Ukraine Scientific Exhibition of Technologies and Innovations demonstrates a skin-healing mask. The exhibition showcased the high-tech achievements of the two countries. There were shown projects on energy conservation, environmental protection, smart robotics, virtual reality, medical technologies and innovative transport. The exhibition has been the largest in the field of high technology, organized jointly by China and Ukraine since the establishment of their diplomatic relations since the independence of Ukraine.
#21
Busy day at the market
People buy their daily groceries in the countryside of Ethiopia. This is taken in Metema, the border side of Sudan. The veggies in the picture come from Sudan and have been sold in Ethiopia.
#22
Kampala Street Hawker
Following the announcement of the second lockdown in Uganda, the nation's president Yoweri Museveni’s also closed all educational institutions for 42 days, and Kampala saw several young people and children selling merchandise in search of survival. There were more than 20 children, some as young as 6 years old, who sold vegetables, fruits and other foodstuffs in markets, on streets, while others also became involved in hawking. The children who throng the streets of Kampala every day say that since they don't go to school, vending and hawking keep them busy. A number of children say their parents give them items to sell on the streets after which they take the money home.
#23
The Birdcatcher
Indian migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic have faced multiple hardships. With factories and workplaces, shops, businesses shut down due to the lockdown imposed in the country, millions of migrant workers had to deal with the loss of income, food shortages, and uncertainty about their future. Following this, many of them and their families went hungry. Thousands of them then began walking back home, with no means of transport due to the lockdown. In response, the Central and State Governments took various measures to help them and later arranged transport for them. This local vendor who has left his village and shifted to a big city (Kolkata) in search of a decent income stepped out of his house risking his life to the virus and was selling toy parrots in hope he would earn some money. Kolkata, India.
#24
A Palestinian woman harvests carrots
A Palestinian woman harvests carrots with a group of women to secure their livelihood in light of the difficult economic conditions in the Gaza Strip suffers from. She is one of three young Palestinian women from Gaza who graduated from university and found it difficult to find work, so they created "Green Girls", an agricultural project run by women to help fight unemployment and poverty.
#25
Positive paw-paw
Teresiah Mbindyo at her pawpaw farm in Makueni county, Northern Kenya. Teresiah is one of the beneficiaries of the Safaricom Digifarm which aims to enrich small-scale farmers across the country. DigiFarm, a Safaricom subsidiary, is an integrated mobile platform for digital services targeting farmers. With a basic feature phone, Kenyan smallholder farmers can access advisory services, market linkages, inputs, input credits and crop insurance. DigiFarm has had over 1.3 million registered users since its launch and with additional features, it has become a one-stop shop for Kenyan farmers.
#26
The Pottery Maker
You know the beautiful pottery you see in souvenir gift shops around the world? Using age-old ingredients, including straw, this woman, along with others in Kathmandu, Nepal, are responsible for supplying some of the wonderful pottery that we purchase during our travels. This photo shows the initial stages of products manufactured for sale or trade by workers around the globe. Working on making pottery near Durbur Square the woman was clearly enjoying her work and was quite productive as you can see from the many finished products in the background. Taken in 2014 before earthquakes hit almost a year later, I often wonder about her and her co-workers and hope they are safe and working.
#27
Beach Fisherboy
On the beach of Mirissa in the south of Sri Lanka, a young boy returned from fishing with his father in the early morning, using his free time to help his family work during the semester break to earn some money to supplement the entire family.
#28
Mobile app the ‘eye in the sky’ for Kenya’s pastoralists
As climate change intensifies the impacts of drought in Northern Kenya, pastoralists are embracing technology to help them adapt. The 'Afriscout' application, developed for and with the pastoralists, helps them to plan where to go to find green pastures for their livestock and make informed migration decisions by providing them with information about forage and water availability. In addition, the app is helping resolve the conflict over the limited pasture by improving communication between the communities. This photo, taken by a local Kenyan photographer commissioned by ITU features pastoralists who have been successfully using the app. A video of this story can also be viewed here.
#29
The long walk to the market
In the north of the Afar region of Ethiopia, the Danakil depression is one of the hottest places on earth, where the Awash River dries up in a series of salt lakes. Hundreds of miners, in small groups, toil under a scorching sun to extract the salt that will be sold in local markets across Ethiopia. The plates of salt crust are broken off with the help of axes, cut into rectangular slabs, and loaded on the back of dromedaries or donkeys to be transported to commercial centers. Here, in a mid afternoon, a caravan sets off from one of the salt-mines to carry the salt 2 days across the Afar desert, to the city of Berhale.
#30
Exploit durably humid regions, improve food security
The image was shot in the village of Wegnia located in the Sahel zone, an area particularly affected by climate change. A comment from one of the traders: “We, the women of Kolokani in the second region (Koulikoro) in Mali, ensure the marketing of our production by focusing on meeting the needs of urban consumers. The number of market gardens increased rapidly from a few dozen to several hundred women in the village of Wegnia. Previously, there were more and more men or heads of families, then, since then, young people who saw it as an alternative to emigration and rural exodus.”
#31
Clay Lamp Makers
Tradition and culture are co-extensive and interdependent. They both have the same etymological meaning: cultivation and growth. Diya - clay lamps - are part of traditional Indian culture and rituals. But clay diyas are gradually fading away due to modern lighting. But there are still few people who are making the clay diyas in the traditional manner - pictured here. The entire process is done manually before it comes to market where the hope is to sell a bit of traditional light.
Selection and curation
The exhibition is curated by:
Lekgetho Makola
Chief Executive Officer
Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria, South Africa
The selection committee is made up of the curator and:
Ronnie Carrington
Barbadian photographer
Joumana El Zein Khoury
Executive Director at World Press Photo
Dona Bertarelli
UNCTAD Special Adviser for the Blue Economy
Andrew Revkin
Journalist and Director of the Initiative on Communication and Sustainability at The Earth Institute of Columbia University
Pamela Stathakis
Responsible Network Manager, Fair Picture
Jan Hoffmann
UNCTAD Trade Logistics Branch head and photographer
Henrique Pacini
UNCTAD Economic Affairs Officer and photographer
Amy Shelver
UNCTAD exhibition producer
Gilles Maury
UNCTAD design and layout