ABEL GASHAW, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
Abel Gashaw is an Ethiopian photographer based in Addis Ababa. For My Mark: My City, he chose to document “Green Legacy”, an ambitious tree planting project led by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The campaign has split opinion, with sceptics arguing that the number of trees planted is a miscalculation. Abel wanted to capture the difference in opinion, but his overall impression was optimistic: “Despite the problems, this is the first mass planting campaign in Africa and paves the way to amazing solutions to keep cities green and combat climate change.” The campaign is ongoing and is planning to plant 5 billion trees in 2020, learning from mistakes made during the previous year.