Energy Portraits
A bottom-up photography initiative that strives to contribute to the UN Agenda 2030 and UNFCCC climate process by highlighting the importance of modern energy access for human development and for protecting our planet
Global | 1 January 2017 – ongoing
Since 2017 WAME has been documenting the energy access challenge through Energy Portraits, photographic images created in an original format by professional photographer Marco Garofalo, documenting the Sustainable Development Goal number 7 challenge to: “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”.
The format Energy Portraits mainly collects images of families in their homes displaying their electric devices. Each photograph is associated with some basic data (annual electricity consumption, cost, CO2 emissions) and a short story detailing the background information about electricity access in that specific context, paying particular attention to affordability and reliability of service. So far, Energy Portraits has collected images in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Bolivia and India.
As COVID-19 prohibited our photographer from travelling and collecting new photographs himself, an innovative project was launched, the Energy SELF Portraits contest (Nov 2020-April 2021). The new methodology, based on self-portraits collected through an open call to all interested professionals or amateurs, used the same format focusing on different SDG7 dimensions such as energy access, its costs and options, its quality, its environmental implications as well as how renewable energy and energy efficiency may offer solutions to the SDG7 challenge associating short stories to them.
To complement the documentation of the real energy situation on the ground, and as a bottom-up contribution to the UN Agenda 2030 and UNFCC climate process, Energy Portraits launched a call for “Energy Messages” from people from all spheres of life and all geographical locations at the Clean Energy Ministerial in Chile (CEM12) in May 2021. This campaign strives to share energy stories with policy makers from CEM12 to COP26 and beyond.
The Energy Portraits will collect all the best work in a publication of a photo-book with Mondadori Electa at the end of 2021.
Energy Portraits is a project by WAME: https://www.wame2030.org/energy-portraits
More info & Social Media
https://www.energyportraits.org/
https://www.facebook.com/Energy-Portraits-107111057888895
https://twitter.com/EnergyPortraits
https://www.instagram.com/energyselfportraits/
Editor’s Note: All information published as submitted by the author(s). Minor edits may have been made to increase readability and understanding.
