Alexandra Boulat Scolarship
Alexandra Boulat Scolarship
To honor the memory of Alexandra Boulat, who taught at TPW in these last years, TPW has created a special scholarship. This will consist in the possibility to attend a workshop in Tuscany for free (not included room and board) and work under the guidance of master photographers.
The Winner of 2010 Scholarship is Alex Masi
‘Developing Injustice’
by Alex Masi
During the past two years I have visited a series of rural, urban and industrial areas around India with the aim of documenting and exposing the rampant socio-environmental impact caused by the unregulated growth the nation has witnessed in recent decades.
The selection I am presenting is a portfolio of images encompassing locations across six Indian states: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra and New Delhi.
The reckless rush for economic growth continues to foster unfair disparities between people living a dream of ownership, self-fulfilment and security, and the countless more who are bound to the nightmarish labour-poverty cycle. A vicious trap where disadvantaged citizens, many still in their childhood, are forced to work for shockingly low wages in order to survive day after day, while their condition will hardly improve in the short-term mostly due to a lack of education, alternatives and lifestyle.
Working children in India are estimated at over 50 million. Their small hands are helping to build India’s future as an international trade player and constitute a major asset in its economic system. The country’s GDP have risen approximately 9 per cent yearly in the past three years and even the recent global recession seems unable to affect its strength much. However, the numerous low-skilled labourers, who are in fact the crux of India’s recent achievements, are failing to witness any real improvement in their daily lives.
India’s many rivers, including the sacred Ganges and Yamuna, have been exploited with no regard to their sustainability and have become the primary recipients of toxic industrial and urban refuse. Many of the people whose land and water supplies have been affected are struggling to step up against the offenders and are mostly left to fend for themselves.
While industrialisation and trade provide a backbone for India as it rises to become a major power, the world’s largest and most populous democracy needs to find valuable solutions for the millions of people who are still deprived of a dignified life where health, education and wellbeing will be considered essential priorities to achieve for all its citizens, regardless of their status, wealth or influence.
The portfolio focuses on the living conditions of vulnerable people, especially children, whether exploited as labourers in hazardous activities, victims of severe illnesses due to the industrial contamination of their environment, or struggling to make a meagre existence on the fringes of society in both rural and urban areas.
The misconduct of both the Indian capitalist elite and a complicit government ought to be exposed to an international audience with the aim of protecting human rights and of finding ways to establish and maintain an essential balance between development, sustainability and justice through persuasive economic and political pressures.
ALEX MASI
Freelance Documentary Photographer
Nationality: Italian
Date of Birth: 22nd April 1981
Website: www.AlexMasi.co.uk
Profile: www.AlexMasi.co.uk/profile.php
After having completed a degree in Photojournalism at the London College of Communication in 2006, Alex has begun to investigate and document socio-environmental issues in India, a largely unregulated developing country where the human rights and well-being of many of its citizens are often overlooked to make space for faster economic growth. Alex strives to portray his subjects with intimacy, understanding and empathy. In the past two years he has interviewed and photographed a large number of destitute Indian families who are increasingly suffering by the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the region and by the unceasing decay of the surrounding environment.
Alex aims at presenting a clear understanding of the issues he covers and a unique personal perspective. He strives to understand, capture and represent the hidden, less obvious sides of a topic, working with empathy, respect and responsibility towards those people whose life he documents through his pictures.
Alex’s work has appeared on international publications such as ‘The New York Times’, ‘Time Magazine’, ‘The Guardian G2 Supplement’, ‘Vanity Fair’, ‘El Pais Semanal’, ‘Marie Claire’, ‘Panorama’, ‘Suddeutsche Zeitung Magazin’, ‘Condé Nast Portfolio’, ‘Newsweek’, ‘Le Figaro Magazine’, ‘Geographical’, ‘La Vanguardia’ and ‘D – La Repubblica’ among many others.
London, UK alex@alexmasi.co.uk +44 / (0) 792.863.7225 (UK)
+91 / (0) 997.184.6141 (INDIA)
For any question, contact info@tpw.it
