In 2018 when I spent 6 months in Thailand and around 4 months photographing the families at night. This picture was made as the families were working some recent dumped garbage, you can see the truck to the left of the picture. The young child had her own small bag and was trying to find things in the garbage to put into it. Often the younger children start out half wandering-half looking in the garbage then later when a bit older and with more experience they become full time workers.
Child working the garbage, THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP, Mae Sot, Thailand 2018
Background (posted before)
The garbage trucks would arrive at around 8pm and 11 pm in complete darkness. The families groups of over 50 people would wait in the dark for the trucks then work the new garbage after it arrived. In a small dump tent which was directly on top of the garbage I photographed this young girl child as she waited for her parents to finish their work. Often young children would accompany their parents as they worked, waiting near by, they would play in the garbage or sleep, sometimes work.
My process was to arrive via motorbike at around 7pm or a bit later and stay till around 1230 or 1 am photographing that nights events. I did that probably 5 out of every 7 days for the 4 months, it was exhausting and filthy. The strength of the families is amazing. At the beginning of the night on first arriving I would hand out headlamps. boots, medicines, foods etc along with mama noodles and lollipops to the children. The lollipops would be handed out through out the night, usually 30 plus per evening. When I ran out of goods I would take orders for the next day. I got good at saying things like, HEADLAMP, BOOTS and TOMORROW in Burmese. The goods were bought with donations made after people saw the photographs, or from exhibition artist fees and talk fees I received. When I did not have enough money, I used my security guard money to buy things (YAUM means "Security Guard" in Thai).
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I have started working on the digi files I will send to the gallery for the coming shows in October. The deadline is August 1, 2022. I need to make up 50 files for 2 exhibitions of 15 prints each (THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP and THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY). The curator will select the 30 that will be shown. They pay for the printing costs of the photographs. Each image will measure about 3 by 4 feet, maybe a bit smaller.
Future Help Note* There might also be the option to sell the post show digital exhibition images if I can find buyers for the prints. 100% of that money would go back to the people in the pictures on my 2023 trip to continue the projects. I can get the prints back to sell from the gallery, if I can find buyers to help the people in the pictures (January 2023 after the 6 week exhibitions ends). If no buyers can be found then the prints might go into the Universities collection.
If your interested in a print to help the people in the photos, please let me know.
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| Child working the garbage, THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP, Mae Sot, Thailand 2018 |
