You may know that we live in a world of stunning inequality. But do you know what that looks like?
Myles Little, an associate photo editor at Time, has made it his mission to display those inequalities. Little's exhibition, called One Percent: Privilege in a Time of Global Inequality, juxtaposes photos depicting excessive wealth, like a butler serving champagne on the Maasai Mara, with scenes of abject poverty, such as a legless man cleaning the stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
Little told Slate that he encountered photography about unequal wealth distribution through his work and wanted to showcase the “the ecosystem of privilege, from work to education to leisure.” He sourced the 30 images from modern documentary photographers.
On a Kickstarter page where Little is seeking to raise $29,500 to publish a photography book, he lays out some of the harsh truths about inequality around the world. For example, he notes that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim makes the equivalent of the annual wages of 400,000 Mexicans just off the interest from his fortune, that inequality in the U.S. is at a 100-year peak and that 1 percent of the population is projected to own 50 percent of global wealth by 2016.
"One Percent" will debut in China in September, and is scheduled to travel through places like Nigeria, Guatemala, Dubai and Chicago during the fall and spring.
Take a look at the photos below for a preview, and ponder your place in the world.
Varvara in her Home Cinema in Moscow.
A street preacher in New York appeals to Wall Street to repent in 2011.
A chef from a nearby luxury lodge waits for his guests to arrive from a hot air balloon excursion before serving them champagne in the middle of the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, in 2012.
James, 25, a British driving instructor, receives a nose job, to reduce the size of his nose for cosmetic reasons.
Shanghai Falling (Fuxing Lu Demolition) in 2002.
A crowd protests the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in 2007.
Mine security at the North Mara mine in Tanzania. On average, 800 villagers and migrants enter the North Mara mine illegally every day to scrounge for rock.
Jeff Koons, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam in 2012.
LaGuardia Landing Pattern over Brooklyn in 2006.
Legless star cleaner on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005.
Daimler Chrysler's supercomputer at the company's headquarters in Stuttgart. The computer is mainly working on crash testing and aerodynamic modelling.
"Roma-Hills" -- Guard-Gated Homes Looking East.
Cheshire, Ohio, 2009.
The Highline. Above 34th Street, eastward, in 2004.