“TONY’S CHOCOLONELY”

Anne Barlinckhoff traveled to Ghana and Ivory Coast in collaboration with Fair Trade brand Tony's Chocolonely. The brand supports slave free chocolate making through building longterm relationships and paying a higher salary than normal fair trade brands to the cocoa farmers in West Africa. However, this is not the reality for every cocoa farm. “When I visited different cocoa farms, I saw how incredibly hard work it is and definitely not work for any young child. Child labour is still a big problem in Africa. Through the higher fair trade payment in the communities, children are being able to go to school instead, which is of upmost importance to be able to create a hope and a future for the children.” In this series are the children, farmers and process of the cocoa community being portrayed with an intimate and caring approach — close to skin of her subjects — she combines the elements of the cocoa industry in their purest form. Instead of seeing the expected, she captures it's rawness and encourages us to see the beauty in an ancient old history process of people working together with nature.

Photographing Tony’s Team in Amsterdam since forever, see here.