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Faces of World Poverty: 20 Arresting Photographs Print
Wednesday, 15th October 2008 (by J.D.)This article is about Economics, Odds and Ends
What do we picture when we think about poverty? What stereotypes do we have about what poverty looks like? What do they mask from us? What do they keep us from seeing?
While putting together my two main posts for Blog Action Day, I came across a number of arresting photographs depicting poverty around the world. It became clear to me that poverty takes many forms — poverty has many faces. These are a few of them.
Each of these photos is from Flickr, and has been tagged by the photographer as depicting “poor” or “poverty” or “homeless”. Click an image to learn more about it.
Today is Blog Action Day. The topic this year is poverty. This is the third of three posts about the subject today at Get Rich Slowly.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Great collection JD. Thanks for finding and posting…
October 15th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
amazing pictures..
October 15th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
A lot of these people didn’t look poor or unhappy.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
These pictures are amazing, awesome collection. Thanks. I have visited all of these places except for three. What I don’t understand is how after viewing these pictures you can still say that you think of yourself as “poor” (currently, or in the past). How can you possibly compare your current situation (or your upbringing) to any of these? Honestly, I feel it is very demeaning.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
J.D., great pictures. I grew up just north of Tijuana — in San Diego. Your picture of the person in Tijuana struck a chord with me.
My favorite picture, though, is the one of the kid in the recepticle — in Cambodia. Truly captures the essence of what you’re talking about.
Keep up the great work here at Getrichslowly.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
J.D. -
Thank you for keeping these images diverse. Too many people associate poverty - especially in imagery - with Africa and Asia. I found the geography of these photographs just as intriguing and surprising as the subject matter.
Alan
October 15th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
@Frugal Bachelor
I’m with you until that last sentence.
You’re right — my experience doesn’t compare to the experience of these people. But my family *was* poor relative to its peers, and that mindset has stuck with me. We weren’t the poorest family in our community, and I cannot relate to the experience of the people in the photographs I’ve found. But that doesn’t mean my own experience isn’t valid, or that I’m demeaning anyone. It’s not a contest. There are no winners with poverty.
I will say, though, that finding these photographs *did* make me think, made me realize how important it is for me to help others, not just in writing about money, but contributing time and money.
@Farbie
What does poor look like? Are poor people always unhappy? That’s kind of what I was trying to get at in my opening statements on this post. Of course, we can’t know if the photographer’s assessment of each situation is accurate, but each claims that her subjects is in poverty.
(Also, in some cases it helps to read the stories behind the photos.)
Poverty comes in many forms. Some are more shocking than others. None of it is good.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
The comment on poverty and happiness is an interesting one to me. My brother spent a number of years living with the gypsies of Serbia. Part of his goal was to help individuals attain micro-loans available through the EU. The people he lived / worked with were desperately poor (living in tin huts, no running water, no regular source of food). But one of the things that he found absolutely amazing (and somewhat life changing for him) was that they were overall much happier than middle America / Europe.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
RT and ALL,
I agree that overall, people in poor countries are happier. I grew up in a third world country and all my life I was generally happy because I was surrounded by family and friends. Here in the US, more and more we are turning to material things to find happiness. We move so much, we don’t get to spend more time with family and friends.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
RT: Ive heard that too. I was watching a documentary a couple months ago were the director made the same comment. He said the poorest areas of different societies always seemed happier than the wealthy groups from the same societies.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I, too, think the discussion about poverty and happiness is interesting. It’s one we’ve had a couple of times before here. A few months ago, GRS reader Saravanan P shared a guest post asking, is it more important to be rich or to be happy? He says that’s a question only a rich person can ask.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:37 am
People with a strong and vibrant culture and society are often happier regardless of whether they are materially rich. But poverty is life threatening, and if you have little room for manouevre it doesn’t take much bad luck for happiness to turn to despair.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:05 am
poverty is relative and peering through our lenses is very problematic, not to mention the lens of the person behind the camera lens.
case in point: i’m sure many of you wouldn’t think twice of giving $1 to any of the people in the photos if you walked past them and they were begging. Because we don’t think about economies of scale or relativeness in doing so. $1 doesn’t get you much in the US, but $1 stretches far in other places (i.e. cost of living). Would they all be poor in the US? Most assuredly. Would they be poor elsewhere? Up to debate.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:44 am
If you haven’t already, you or your readers might be interested to read Alain de Botton’s book, Status Anxiety. In it, he discusses how attitudes to the poor have changed over the centuries, and how this affects the way we (as members of society) feel about ourselves.
His other book, The Consolations of Philosophy, also discusses what philosophy has to say about ‘Not Having Enough Money.’
(Sorry, I don’t know how to do italics or fancy links!)
http://www.amazon.com/Status-Anxiety-Alain-Botton/dp/0375420835
http://www.amazon.com/Consolations-Philosophy-Alain-Botton/dp/0679779175/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224153618&sr=1-1
October 16th, 2008 at 4:17 am
I always wonder if the “poor are happier than the rich” scenario is just a way to make everyone feel better about themselves. I know I wouldn’t be happy to live like that. Not that I need a BMW or a big house, but living in squalor can not be good for ones psyche.
Also, a lot of self-made people are very very driven, and that generally isn’t a recipe for overt displays of happiness. This doesn’t mean they aren’t happy, just that they won’t show it as much.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:27 am
@Chad: see that is where your conditioned life comes into play in relative terms. If you live a life without knowing about bmw and big houses, then it isn’t a squalor is it? If you don’t know about xbox 360 or it is outside your purview, you play with tires or sticks, and is that bad for your psyche? don’t think so. it’s bad for “your” psyche, but not for their psyche.
October 16th, 2008 at 5:50 am
Having travelled a decent portion of the world in the US Navy, I can tell you there is a distinct difference between the poor, the poverty stricken and the destitute. Here in the US the “poor” still have cars and cell phones. The poverty stricken don’t have these things but generally have a place to stay, old clothes to wear and enough to eat most of the time. The destitute mostly live in third world countries and have nothing and no hope. So, pick a worthy cause and give. After all, we are all rich, we can afford computers.
Thanks J.D. We need to be reminded sometimes.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:02 am
Sorry, but I just can’t agree that “poor people are happier.” I grew up in Saudi Arabia, amid scenes that make some of the situations pictured here look affluent. And lemme tellya: those were not overall happy people. That a group of people do not labor under the specific set of stresses and annoyances that afflict others in “developed” cultures does not mean they are free of stress and unhappiness.
On the other hand, it’s hard not to question whether all of these photos actually depict poverty. The little child in China, for example, is a bit dirty (have any of our children passed through that age sterling clean every minute?) but looks plump, adequately clothed, and healthy. There are no flies in his eyes; no eczema on his face or head; no visible sign of congenital syphilis; no bloated belly. The family in Madagascar: is that their field? If so, they may not regard themselves as poor — they may define themselves as rural and hardworking, which is different from truly poor. Ditto the tribal women in Bolivia: they don’t appear to be starving. How do they define themselves, and why?
The people who appear to be homeless mentally ill represent a subset of the poverty issue that relates to the failure of societies — some of them very affluent societies, such as the one we live in — to attend to members who can’t care for themselves. While this is poverty of the worst kind, it strikes me as different from the issues pictured in the photos of people in Nicaragua and Cambodia. It’s more a healthcare issue than an economic one.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:19 am
my response is very small, but I try to give both locally and internationally.
When I go shopping I buy an extra bag of rice and give it to the local food bank, then occasionally I try send whatever I’ve spent on rice to
http://www.riceraiser.org
where my donations buy rice for impoverished people around the world.
Even though my contributions are very small, I sleep better at night and can rationalize not giving money in certain situations like those discussed in yesterday’s post.
October 16th, 2008 at 8:08 am
I don’t find many of these arresting at all. I also think I could probably recreate most of these in one day in New York so the round-the-world thing is a bit lost on me.
Anyhow, it’s good to remember how fortunate we are but let’s try not to pity everyone too much. If they have a loving family they probably don’t mind that they can’t afford an iPhone.
October 16th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Some of these aren’t about poverty — they’re about homelessness. those are two different issues, with different root causes and they require different solutions.
October 16th, 2008 at 8:57 am
I know that picture from Oregon was taken by J.D., but with all due respect, I don’t think that picture captures poverty at all. I don’t know if the guy in the picture is homeless. Assuming that he is, his cats (and the man for that matter) look well-groomed and fed. How is poverty defined in that picture?
October 16th, 2008 at 9:12 am
MJ wrote: I know that picture from Oregon was taken by J.D., but with all due respect, I don’t think that picture captures poverty at all.
Ah, yes. The troublesome “U.S.A.” photo. As most of you probably noticed, I tried to select photos from diverse geographical regions. Curiously, there aren’t many Flickr photos from the U.S. tagged with “poor” or “poverty”, though there are many tagged with “homeless”. (By the way — I see what you all mean about there being a difference between homeless and poverty, but I’m not sure what that difference is. To me, homeless is a subset of poor. Is this not correct?)
I knew that I need a photo from the U.S., but didn’t like any of the ones that I found. First, I was trying to avoid racial stereotypes. Second, a lot of the photos I found were just like the one of mine I posted, but with different people. The photo I intended to use for most of the prep time (I worked on this post for two weeks) was this one here), but Kris rejected it as not being about poverty, either.
I was about to give up on the U.S. entirely, when I remembered a fellow I had met five years ago while taking photos on a Saturday morning. He was, indeed, homeless, and to me he seemed to embody the type of poverty I see in Portland. (I know it’s not the only sort of poverty that exists here, but it’s the kind I see.) This man — Talon — kept all of his belongings in a grocery cart, and he kept three cats on a leash.
I ended up using my own photo because it was easy, and because I was running out of time. The entire project would have been easier if I wasn’t ham-strung by copyright laws.
Again, I’d like to point out that we have to take the photographers at their word that these people are poor (or homeless). Kris told me that she doesn’t think the family from Bolivia (photo 18) looks poor. Is that because they’re dressed colorfully? Because they’re smiling? All I know is that the photographer labelled them as poor, and these are the only people he did so among many other photos of Bolivia.
To me, the kids from Jordan don’t necessarily look poor, but again, that’s my point. We each have certain notions about what poverty is and looks like. Poverty takes many forms, though. No one form of poverty is “better” than any other.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am
All of us would do well to stop calling ourselves “poor” or thinking of ourselves as “poor” if our basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, etc are being met. I don’t care if you felt poor or feel poor compared to others in your neighborhood. That doesn’t make you poor. Half of America thinks it’s poor because they have a little less than people around them who have way, way too much.
Additionally, there are different types of poverty and not all of them need to be cured. Some forms of poverty mean that people are going without food or shelter, are working in slave-like conditions, etc. There are other situations around the world where people live at a subsistence level, but I would not consider them poor. I lived with people like this in Fiji, Bolivia, Costa Rica and other places. Their networth may be close to zero, but they still aren’t “poor” in the sense that they live in a lush and forgiving environment, they get all of the food they need from the environment around them, they build perfectly adequate housing from the environment around them, their other basic needs are met, and they would tell you they are happy and fine (until globalization and advertising come in and convince them that they need processed foods, jeans, a car, and a loan to make it all possible).
October 16th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Very powerful photographs. One job loss and - boom! - this could be any one of us.
@Kristina - Very good points!
@J.D. - I agree with your wife’s opinion. The pic of the woman with the dogs has “something” else going on with it. There seems to be a real attitude of cockiness and defiance, I don’t know. The woman in the pic reminds me of the attitudes I frequently ran across with my attempts to rent to low income types over the past 3 years. There is something about that pic that gets my back up. I prefer the one you actually ended up posting for some reason. Just my 2c.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Am I right in thinking that Tijuana really isn’t very far from the US border?
It’s amazing the difference a few miles and an accident of history can make in what poverty looks like.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Wow J.D.,
Great collection of pictures. Poverty as you rightly said has many forms. The one that I hate is “Not having enough medications to survive”. People die of curable and preventable diseases. I wish every person on earth gets enough medication so that they don’t die because of diseases.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Plonkee, yes Tijuana is just across the border from the USA south of San Diego.
Jim
October 16th, 2008 at 11:19 am
My first exposure to utter third world poverty came when I was serving in the military and was assigned to a base in the Philippines. As I moved into my off base house, local Filipinos rapidly absconded with my abandoned moving boxes. I was perplexed.
Then I discovered that those cardboard boxes were used to make shelters for homeless, poverty stricken families. It made me feel sick to my stomach.
During my first 6 months in the PI, I felt overwhelmingly guilty about my fortunate position in life as opposed to those all around me who were scrambling to survive. Hungry, skinny children dressed in filthy rags, families digging through refuse bins for discarded food, women selling their bodies to feed their families - all became a regular part of the every day scenery.
If you have an ounce of compassion in your heart, an experience like that will forever profoundly change you.
Now, when I press my glass to my fridge door and get ice cubes and chilled, clean water, I am aware of how fortunate I am. As I plan and save for my future and retirement, I never forget how lucky I am to even have such options.
It’s difficult for those of us who live in the USA to realize just how fortunate we are, even in these bad times.
I hope everyone, though times be tight, will remember to donate to charities that help feed/support the poor.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Seeing these pictures reminds me of an incident that occurred during my post-high school trip to Spain about ten years back. Now, I had seen a good number of homeless people during the trip, and had given some spare pesetas to a few–no harm came of it–but in one city we visited, I noticed a homeless man sitting up near the wall on the opposite side of an alley we were walking up. From the rear, he didn’t appear much different from many of the others I had seen. As we got closer, I could tell there seemed to be something different about this one. As we passed, I could tell just what was different.
The man was clearly dead. The picture of him in my mind is always what I think of when I think of true poverty.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:31 am
To Martacus in the post above me. That’s rough man. At least you were of an age able to somewhat come to grip with what you had seen.
My experience was in third grade when I temporarily moved to a city in Mexico called Cuernavaca, about a 2 hour drive through the winding mountains south of Mexico City. This town is beautiful and if you are able to look in the right places behind the vast walls, you will find the most beautiful palaces in the world; a city of extreme wealth and extreme poverty with little inbetween.
The first incident I’ll mention was when my mother took myself and my two younger siblings to McDonalds. After getting our food we chose to eat outside and enjoy the luscious weather that the town is named after. Surrounding the outside patio was a 10ft rod iron fence, with children pleading, begging, reaching their arms in, for food. Being a third grader and seeing kids my age, an older sister and her younger brother, begging for something I take completely for granted.. It’s scaring, but not necessarily a bad thing to have experienced.
October 19th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Jim- We don’t have to go that far to find that type of third world poverty in this country. Just go deep within the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky and West Virginia and you will see tin shacks and starving children.
I made a commitment to support one of those children down there and hope that may contribution is making at least a slight difference in that little girls life.
December 25th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
The holiday season always reminds me to blog about privilege and gratitude, so I included this post in my Link-tastic Xmas round-up this year. Thanks for it. It moves me every time.
http://jesuisreconnaissant.blogspot.com/2008/12/its-beginning-to-look-like-link-tastic.html