Despite not carrying my usual DSLR camera around my neck, it began with this young girl assuming I had one and asking me to have her picture taken to show she was proud of her work cleaning recyclable plastics collected from the dump. Those who could see the fun she was having also wanted portraits, resulting in a domino effect of others coming forward to have their picture taken.

The resulting images therefore have a different tone to mainstream portrayal, instead focusing on life behind the scenes that provide a wider context of why people come to find work here despite the dangers both to the environment and their own health.

The toughest section of the waste dump was in the far back where migrants from across West Africa temporarily for a period of of a few weeks to a few months at a time to earn a living from selling anything they can make some cash from. As a solution to combat homelessness, the migrants build shacks on site from various items that have landed there. They take the best materials for themselves before it ends up in the hands of a buyer, and also dress themselves in clothing they have found in the rubbish.

Strength was a key feature in the body language expressed by the men on site - they were as 'tough' as their working and living conditions around them. The difference between the first and second shot of the same man below demonstrates this sense of pride, which counteracts the typically negative portrayals of a controversial site such as this.