Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Commerce / Economics - Matt Black

Matt Black
By Mandy Litwin

Photographer Matt Black's work portrays issues concerning poverty, migration, and the environment. Some may compare the work he does today to the photographs that were made by Dorothea Lange for the FSA program in the 1930's. Born and raised in California, Black has seen first-hand the issues of migration and poverty.



His project, The Geography of Poverty, requires him to travel – 48,000 miles across 44 states – to various cities in which the poverty exceeds 20% per the population. His images are visually dramatic, using black and white photo-journalistic style. They are hauntingly beautiful when placed next to stark captions such as below:



Keep yourself updated on the current progress of this project is at http://www.geographyofpoverty.com/ which presents his most recent postings of images in his journey. Black is also trying to utilize the geo tagging feature in social media to give recognition to poverty stricken locations and give them the attention needed to help create solutions to the poverty affecting these areas.




MSNBC article [ here ] describes his documentation as “the struggle and triumphs of the people at the heart of these communities”.

Question:  Do you think projects like this have actual potential to make an impact on making the changes necessary to lower poverty rates and help this suffering communities? 

1 comment:

  1. * address how his work, process or distribution methods can inform your work?

    ReplyDelete