SIYU AWARD
SIYU AWARD

Sean Charlton White
Climate Banter

Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue; it’s a business opportunity. As global leaders gather for high-profile climate summits, the real story often unfolds offstage, where corporate interests, financial incentives, and political manoeuvring shape the terms of our future. The annual UN climate talks, framed as moments of global cooperation, have become platforms for strategic branding, greenwashed mega-projects, and carefully crafted narratives that serve powerful interests under the guise of planetary care. This project critically examines the choreography of climate negotiations, where ambitious rhetoric often masks a deeper alignment with the status quo. While public messaging speaks of urgency and transformation, the core economic logic remains untouched. Solutions that challenge existing power structures, like degrowth, are conveniently excluded. In their place, we see a marketplace of green promises: sleek innovations and large-scale projects meant to attract investment and maintain appearances, rather than address the root causes of the crisis. Set against the backdrop of host cities like Dubai and Baku, hosts of the last two UN climate summits, and both symbols of the oil economy, this work explores the contradictions at the heart of global climate discourse. Without insider access, it captures what the public sees: the carefully curated narratives, the unspoken hierarchies, and the spaces where power operates just out of sight. Through photography, it highlights the tensions, contradictions, and quiet transactions that rarely make the headlines. Rather than reinforcing the illusion of progress, this project challenges us to question who truly benefits from these summits—and whether real change is even possible within a framework built to sustain the status quo.

Sean Charlton White (1997) is a Swiss–British photographer, graphic designer and photo editor. He is currently based in The Hague (NL) where he graduated in 2023 from the photography department of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague (KABK) after completing a foundation year at ECAL in Switzerland. Through the use of humour and satire, his work explores the intersections of documentary and fiction, often reflecting on society’s structures, media consumption and narratives, as well as environmental issues. He has previously been selected for the Rotterdam Photo 2025 x Amarte: Dutch Talent Project Grants, Swiss Design Awards 2024, DuPho SO’24 Award, Steenbergen Stipendium 2023, The Emergentes Portfolio Reviews 2023 and Canon Student Development Program 2021. Besides his own practice, he works at The Wire magazine as photo editor and designer while also co-running London based photobook publishing house Here Press with Ben Weaver.

Sean Charlton White
Climate Banter

Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue; it’s a business opportunity. As global leaders gather for high-profile climate summits, the real story often unfolds offstage, where corporate interests, financial incentives, and political manoeuvring shape the terms of our future. The annual UN climate talks, framed as moments of global cooperation, have become platforms for strategic branding, greenwashed mega-projects, and carefully crafted narratives that serve powerful interests under the guise of planetary care. This project critically examines the choreography of climate negotiations, where ambitious rhetoric often masks a deeper alignment with the status quo. While public messaging speaks of urgency and transformation, the core economic logic remains untouched. Solutions that challenge existing power structures, like degrowth, are conveniently excluded. In their place, we see a marketplace of green promises: sleek innovations and large-scale projects meant to attract investment and maintain appearances, rather than address the root causes of the crisis. Set against the backdrop of host cities like Dubai and Baku, hosts of the last two UN climate summits, and both symbols of the oil economy, this work explores the contradictions at the heart of global climate discourse. Without insider access, it captures what the public sees: the carefully curated narratives, the unspoken hierarchies, and the spaces where power operates just out of sight. Through photography, it highlights the tensions, contradictions, and quiet transactions that rarely make the headlines. Rather than reinforcing the illusion of progress, this project challenges us to question who truly benefits from these summits—and whether real change is even possible within a framework built to sustain the status quo.

Sean Charlton White (1997) is a Swiss–British photographer, graphic designer and photo editor. He is currently based in The Hague (NL) where he graduated in 2023 from the photography department of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague (KABK) after completing a foundation year at ECAL in Switzerland. Through the use of humour and satire, his work explores the intersections of documentary and fiction, often reflecting on society’s structures, media consumption and narratives, as well as environmental issues. He has previously been selected for the Rotterdam Photo 2025 x Amarte: Dutch Talent Project Grants, Swiss Design Awards 2024, DuPho SO’24 Award, Steenbergen Stipendium 2023, The Emergentes Portfolio Reviews 2023 and Canon Student Development Program 2021. Besides his own practice, he works at The Wire magazine as photo editor and designer while also co-running London based photobook publishing house Here Press with Ben Weaver.