Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Photo Story: People Working The Garbage, Mae Sot Thailand 2013

This image I have never printed, found the neg during my recent scanning process for the "Photography Forum" magazine submission. In the dump families work pretty well night and day. When fresh garbage comes people are on top of it quickly, working for recyclable goods. The older man in the central back area I became quite close to, he is the fellow from the boot story posted several years back (see link), he is also the father of the groom (from a wedding I photographed in the dump in 2013). I have known him since my first days in the dump. The black dots in the photo are the flies the workers have to deal with. The flies for me are the most difficult part of the dump to daily deal with, crawling all over you, buzzing your ears, mouth, nose and eyes. I have many negs ruined after the flies landed on my Leica rangefinder lens.They are everywhere, at times in certain areas I have counted 40+ flies walking on the front part of my body. In the year 2017 how can people still be living in such conditions? Scraping and fighting to survive, digging through garbage and covered in flies.

Tech Stuff: Shot with a Leica M6 rangefinder camera and probably my 35mm F1.4 lens, on Tri-x (200 ASA) 35mm film. Developed in D-76 2-1 for 11 minutes 30 seconds at 20C in a Patterson tank.
The "Cry of Joy" boot story from December 2015

Working the garbage 2, Mae Sot garbage dump, Thailand 2013