Beautiful but troubling: photographs of the wealthiest one percent on our planet
To be able to simply drift in the infinity pool on the roof terrace of the fifty-seven-floor Marina Bay Sands Hotel, while in the background you can enjoy the urban soundscape of Singapore’s imposing sea of high-rises. Or to be personally welcomed to a private champagne party after an extended hot-air balloon ride over the Kenyan wilderness. The extravagant pleasures of the wealthiest one percent of the earth’s population represent an extreme contrast to those of the remaining ninety-nine. Describing the gaping disparities in images is a challenge that has been taken up by Nina Berman, Peter Bialobrzeski, Guillaume Bonn, Mikhael Subotzky, and many others photographers. The volume assembles their works for the purpose of lending visual evidence to the blatant discrepancy between people’s living conditions, which can be as fascinating as it is shocking.
Edited by Myles Little, Texts by Geoff Dyer, Myles Little, Joseph Stiglitz, graphic design by grafikanstalt, Julia Wagner
Hatje Cantz
2016. 80 pp., 50 ills.
ISBN 978-3-7757-4094-4