Independently or in partnership with other organisations taking action for energy justice, EnAct has worked with talented visual storytellers in diverse contexts.

As with making films, we believe this is an important way to help other actors how completely different it is to live with little or no energy.

When the statistic that some rural families spend 50% of income on energy is matched to batteries lined up like spice jars, it triggers other insights. While most of us ‘flick a switch’ to light a lamp or listen to music, some 400 000 homes in Romania have never been connected to the electricity grid. Families who rely on batteries have to travel to shops on a regular basis, adding transportation costs to what they spend to have even a small amount of power. They have to stock up, knowing they could ‘run out’ of power at any time of day or night. And they end up with a lot of toxic waste in and around their homes.

Across EU countries, EnAct has followed people whose health, well-being and livelihoods are undermined by the lack of access to affordable energy, including in places where governments argue the problem of energy poverty ‘doesn’t exist’. Importantly, we’ve also witnessed moments when interventions – whether deep renovations or simply showing people what devices drive up their energy bills – begin to relieve the pressure.

In low-income and developing countries, photos capture the harsh reality of have virtually no access to modern energy. And the reality that even a single, solar-powered lightbulb can be game-changing for running a small shop, studying at night or even walking safely through a slum after dark.