16 Photos That Show What Privilege Looks like in A Time of Global Inequality
Next you’ll get to see what privilege looks like in a time of global inequality. That’s the hidden world of the wealthy people is seen in amazing photographs.
A while ago, an associate photo editor at Time, came up with an idea that will change the way you see the world.
Myles Little sees a lot of photography related to wealth and inequality because of his job.
A couple of years back, after he had a conversation with curator Daniel Brena in Mexico, Little began working on establishing an exhibition that will highlight, through contemporary documentary photography, what privilege looks like.
He wanted to show a glimpse into “the ecosystem of privilege, from work to education to leisure.”
Going through photography agencies he often uses for his job, Little came up with around 2,000 images he then edited to 30 that are part of “One Percent: Privilege in a Time of Global Inequality.”
“In the beginning I didn’t have a clear vision at all,” Little wrote via email about the work. “At times in the past I’ve been drawn to satirical photography, but I knew I didn’t want to go down that route. We’re all pretty familiar with caricatures of the rich by now, anyway.”
“Over the course of many months, I came to feel I wanted the show to feel refined and well crafted, to have calm, ordered, medium-format photography compositions.”
He was looking to organize the show in response to Edward Steichen’s photography exhibit at the MoMA “Family of Man,” which was first shown in 1955 as a “manifesto for peace and the fundamental equality of mankind, expressed through the humanist photography of the post-war years.”
He feels the optimistic show would probably be seen as naive today.
“If it’s true that the top 1 percent owns half of global wealth, it’s hard to argue that we’re all in this together. So I wanted to borrow that show’s organizing principles but critique it by only including photos taken from the world of wealth.”
Lots of the images included in the exhibition are part of that world, but in the end he also included photographs that were a bit more ambiguous.
By doing that he ended up highlighting juxtaposition between the two worlds, such as a legless man cleaning the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame or a street preacher appealing for Wall Street to repent.
Little said some of the more abstract images speak to him about wealth but might have a different reaction with viewers.
“Sometimes questions are more interesting than answers” he wrote.
His intentions are simple. Little has hopes to publish the work as a book with Hatje Cantz and for that, he already started a Kickstarter campaign to fund it.
Have you seen these rare historical photos that show humans have always been weird?
He will also exhibit the work around the world beginning this fall in China at the Pingyao International Photography Festival. Check more about the project here: onepercentshow.com
