Art Works Projects joins The Hague Climate Week 2026 (Haagse Klimaatweek) to spotlight the work of Emerging Lens Fellows Oyewole Lawal and Edwin Ndeke, two documentary photographers examining environmental justice through the people whose labor keeps some of Africa’s largest cities functioning.

Through a special presentation and slideshow, Lawal and Ndeke take audiences inside the lives of waste workers in Lagos, Nigeria, and Nairobi, Kenya—workers on the front lines of the global waste crisis whose essential role in recycling and environmental protection too often remains invisible. Their projects were brought together through Emerging Lens as a collaborative storytelling initiative spanning West and East Africa.

Lawal’s Guardians of Gaia: The Unseen Eco-Warriors documents waste miners at Lagos’s Olusosun Landfill, challenging the stigma surrounding their work and reframing them as environmental stewards. Ndeke’s documentary work examines life around Kenya’s largest dumpsite, revealing both the ecological consequences of waste and the indispensable workers who sort and recover what others discard.

The Hague presentation comes during a period of growing international recognition for these Emerging Lens artists. Lawal has been named a 2026 ZEKE Awards Honorable Mention for his documentary project The Mourning Tide: Reflections on the Coastal Water Crisis, which is featured in the Spring 2026 issue of ZEKE Magazine and will be showcased with the 2026 ZEKE Award recipients in Paris in November.

Together, their images ask us to look again at what—and whom—we throw away.

Venue and visitor details coming soon.