Life without Lights by Peter DiCampo

Life without Lights is a photography project by Boston, MA based photographer Peter DiCampo who got the idea for this project while working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana from 2006-2008.

I realized how deeply the lack of electricity affected the lives of my neighbors. It impeded their progress in the sectors of health, education, gender equality, agriculture, and virtually every aspect of development.

With a goal to publish these stories and creating a wider awareness of this issue, he recently raised funding for this project on Kickstarter.com. Besides, Peter DiCampo has been given a rare opportunity to exhibit his work at the 2012 UN International Year of Sustainable Energy for All conference and at Rio+20 to address audiences of policymakers and world leaders, sharing stories from the people he photographed.

At a time of constant debate over the future of energy, it is easy to forget that 1.4 billion people – nearly a quarter of humanity – still live without access to electricity. Through my Life Without Lights photography, I strive to reveal the economic impact of global Energy Poverty while exploring energy’s future.

I began this project while living in rural northern Ghana, where I realized how deeply the lack of electricity affected the lives of my neighbors: It impeded their progress in the sectors of health, education, gender equality, agriculture, and virtually every aspect of development. Since then, I’ve photographed people living in a state of Energy Poverty on top of the vast oil reserves of Kurdistan, and just outside of Albuquerque, the largest city in the US state of New Mexico.