Naasra Yeti, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana

Artist Pieter Hugo South African, born 1976, Johannesburg, active in Cape Town

Date2009

MediumDigital chromogenic print on paper

Dimensionsimage: 32 × 32 in. (81.3 × 81.3 cm)
paper: 38 1/2 × 38 1/2 in. (97.8 × 97.8 cm)
frame: 39 1/2 × 39 1/2 × 2 1/4 in. (100.3 × 100.3 × 5.7 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Art Trust Endowment

Object number2012.2

On View

Not on view

Label TextThis portrait from Hugo’s series Permanent Error depicts Naasra Yeti at Agbogbloshie, a massive dump and burn site for technological waste on the outskirts of Ghana’s capital city, Accra. Hugo’s portraits feature the workers who scavenge for bits of copper, brass, aluminum, and zinc for resale.

This barren, blackened, and noxious landscape provides the apocalyptic backdrop for Hugo’s images. The subjects, many of whom are children and teenagers, like the young girl pictured here, are photographed full figure and facing the camera. The artist urges us to think about the impact of technological waste. The electronic trash shipped to Accra primarily ends up for sale in secondhand markets, and whatever does not sell is taken to the dump and burned.
["Portraits and Power," 2024]ProvenanceCreated Accra, Ghana, 2009; collection of the artist; [Yossi Milo Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 2012.
Published ReferencesPermanent Error: Pieter Hugo (Munich, London, New York: Prestel Verlag, 2011), illus. 71
Exhibition HistoryNew York, Yossi Milo Gallery, Pieter Hugo: Permanent Error, September 8-October 29, 2011.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “To Be Young: Coming of Age in the Contemporary” [Part 2], September 28, 2021-April 5, 2022.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “The People's Collection Reimagined," June 17, 2024-April 7, 2025.
Object Rights Statement

The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) makes images of its collection available online to support research and scholarship and to inform and educate the public. Certain works of art, as well as the photographs of those works of art, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or related interests not owned by the NCMA. The responsibility for ascertaining whether any such rights exist and for obtaining all other necessary permissions remains with the applicant. To request images and/or permissions from the NCMA, please complete our online request form.