Material World

Initiated and organized by the renowned American photographer Peter Menzel in 1992, this project was supported by the UN.   Read more
Initiated and organized by the renowned American photographer Peter Menzel in 1992, this project was supported by the UN. Photographers had to find a “typical” family in a country (with data supplied by the UN), and photograph their daily life for a week. The all important photograph was a shot of the family with all their material possessions exposed in front of their dwelling.

Put together in a book and exhibition, the photographs show graphically the unequal distribution of wealth in the world. The contrast between a family in Mali, with just a few pots, and that of families in the US, Kuwait and Japan, where their possessions fill up the whole street and parking space, forces one to see the differences in lifestyle of the haves and the have-nots.

I was invited to photograph 3 families – in Mongolia, Vietnam and China.
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