Exhibition
“The Visualization of Waste”
From March 12 to April 1, 2025, the exhibition “La mise en image du rebut” (The Visualization of Waste) will be held at the CNRS Paris Michel-Ange center in the heart of the 16th arrondissement. It stems from a discussion between scientists (geographers, sociologists, anthropologists, etc.) and a pooling of research photos, presenting women and men who make a living from working with waste in some twenty countries around the world.
The visualization of waste: Materials, bodies, and practices surrounding waste
Images of waste collectors in the streets or in landfills often depict people working in degrading conditions, populating Dantean landscapes and evoking human misery. This photography exhibition—which questions the relationship societies have with their waste—aims, on the contrary, to give prominence to portraits of women and men that may suggest other stories to those who view them.
The aim here is to shine a light on them, freeing them from the stigma of poverty and marginalization that usually accompanies contact with garbage: the numerous interviews conducted with them, their poses in front of the researcher-photographer, but above all their work of transforming waste into valuable materials bear witness to this.
Across the world, these “waste workers” are increasingly demanding social rights, but also recognition of the legitimacy of their contribution to recycling, waste management, and, more broadly, the environment. These portraits depict ordinary workers going about their tasks: workers who want to be considered equal to others, recognized for their work and by society.
The Urban Societies and Waste network
The Urban Societies and Waste (SUD) research network is part of the social sciences and focuses on waste as a vehicle for broader dynamics affecting urban societies.
SUD brings together researchers of different nationalities, from multiple disciplines, and from diverse institutions working in a wide variety of fields around the world.
The SUD network has notably published the book “Urban Societies and Waste. International Insights” (PUFR, Tours, 2015).
One of the stated objectives of PEPR Recyclage is to offer scientific outreach activities to communicate with the general public. Several members of the program have already expressed their willingness to take on this type of initiative, such as Bénédicte Florin and Pascal Garret, members of the program’s social and human sciences (SHS) axis, who are participating in the exhibition “The Visualization of Waste“.
After participating in several exhibitions of this type, the two geographers and sociologists were able to grasp the challenges of scientific mediation. What to show and how to show it? What format is best suited to reaching the greatest number of people? “We had to learn gradually to simplify our content, to get to the essentials to improve accessibility,” explains Bénédicte Florin…
The exhibition “The Visualization of Waste” continues its tour and was displayed from May 12 to June 4 at the Catholic University of Lyon.
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