ONE HUNDRED TRILLION DOLLARS

This series focuses on traces of the hyperinflation that hit Zimbabwe in 2000s, mixing my analogue photographs of the area with archives of banknotes issued at the time.

This series focuses on traces of the hyperinflation that hit Zimbabwe in 2000s, mixing my

analogue photographs of the area with archives of banknotes issued at the time.

In 2015, I travelled to Zimbabwe to see my father, who worked there, and we went on a roadtrip.

As the scenery was unfolding ahead of me, I noticed large empty billboards and I

photographed them. I started there, and my intuition made me wonder why there were no

images on these billboards.

I started researching and learned that Zimbabwe had experienced one of the worst global

economic crises, due to hyperinflation resulting from a series of political decisions taken under

the reign of Robert Mugabe, who took office in 1980. Swinging between the hope of a new

world at the end of the apartheid regime and repressive policies against his opponents, Robert

Mugabe changed the destiny of an entire country that was once the granary of southern

Africa. Hyperinflation began in the early 2000s, and it continued to soar until 2008, when it

reached its peak. Throughout this period, unhinged amounts of currency were printed in an

attempt to halt the economic tsunami. Some of these notes even had expiry dates to

encourage people to circulate the money.

The title of this series, 'One hundred trillion dollars', is the highest banknote I was able to find.

What happened in Zimbabwe is certainly the result of an economic, social and political

context, but it is a striking example of what capitalism can produce in terms of the absurdity

of the banking game.

The issue is still topical in Zimbabwe (to a lesser extent than in 2008). It is also a mechanism

that characterizes other countries and continents, as is the case for parts of Latin America at

the moment.

I finalised this subject during a two-and-a-half-month residency/mentorship at the ENSP

(École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie) in Arles between February and May 2022,

where I produced a book that is now in the ENSP library collection.

I've also attached a link to a video of a poker game I played at the ENSP, which puts into

perspective what Zimbabweans were going through at the time.

https://youtu.be/hTwdCD8xuaA