Artist dials up creativity in phone keyboard works

Desire Koffi often walks through Koumassi, a popular district of Cote d'Ivoire's main city Abidjan, to collect old mobile phones that he buys from people for about 500 CFA francs ($0.8726) a pair.

Back home, the 24-year-old Ivoirian artist dismantles the phones with a hammer to pull out the screens and keyboards. He uses them for his paintings.

"My No 1 goal is to try, in my own small way, to reduce electronic waste that is found in the streets and in the bins," he said.