Gaff, a photo from Phnum Penh, West

Photographer's Note

A young worker grasps the end of a gaff used for picking up plastic at The Stung Meanchey Landfill in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Soft clear plastic is the most desireable and lucrative for the workers here as it pays more per kilogram than the more easily detected blue plastic.

Each of the overv 2000 workers at the dump are paid by the kilogram with the most lucrative items being those made of metal.

Glass and cans are also in demand, but due to it's low payout per kilogram, the blue plastic seen everywhere has fallen out of fashion with the workers.

ak47apache, colibri, anes_lc, pascal13, robob, ngythanh, vincz, happypoppeye, gabrielpat, lacroux, AROBN54, branley, fkokol, KevRyan, jcdurka1 ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

colibri (294) 2007-04-07 2:37

Hi John
a very strong picture we don't think of so many small children working for survival
I love the composition and those dirty hands...
lots of detail
TFS
Marco

bantonbuju (51815) 2007-04-07 2:53

man, this is raw reality!
love this image, love the way the young man's face went out - still beilng childish, this boy, his serious face indicates that life is not a piece of cake, out there...
how important this image is!
best wishes,
j.

danyy (0) 2007-04-07 3:37

Bonjour John,
un document qui ne laisse pas indifférent, alors que les enfants des pays riches se plaignent de devoir aller à l'école, ils feraient bien de regarder ce qui se pase ailleurs dans le monde.
Et puis on s'étonne que les valeurs diffèrent d'une civilisation à l'autre, d'un peuple, à l'autre.
Excellent cadrage aidé par une DOF bien paramètrée, couleurs et lumières parfaites.

C'est très parlant.
Best regards.
Daniel.

anes_lc (14968) 2007-04-07 3:41

hi john
this time i see a lion..don't know why i have this feeling
is more then any other portraits ,was the power to go on ,fighting for survive ...and all this i see it on his eyes
thank you for share
regards,anes

pascal13 (2100) 2007-04-07 4:45

Bonjour John,
Tous ces gamins à l'avenir plus qu'incertain livrés à eux même est une bien triste réalité.
Comment osons nous encore nous plaindre lorsqu'on voit ceci.
La façon dont tu as su capturer le regard de l'enfant vient renforcer cette idée de lutte pour la survie.
La DOF et ce cadrage excellent font de cette photo une image trés forte qui ne peut nous laisser insensible.Du bon travail.
Amicalement.
Pascal

ndb1958 (9289) 2007-04-07 7:57

Hi John, what a wonderful picture of the poor little boy's cruel daily life. We all should see pics like this on the news every day. Very touching, very sad, very beautiful at the same time. Nino

robob (3648) 2007-04-07 8:45

Hello John,
Difficile de s’imaginer que des êtres humains doivent gagner leur vie de cette manière. D’autant plus dramatique lorsqu’il s’agit d’enfants !
En tout cas, techniquement, cette image est d’une excellente netteté !
Bien à toi John,
Robert

ngythanh (8458) 2007-04-07 17:22

Your today photo and note should be on Page One of an international-size newspaper.
Thank you,

Thanh

vincz (19113) 2007-04-07 19:00

Great quality and light for this very strong impact picture. Very impressive!

happypoppeye (4819) 2007-04-08 0:17

Excellent...love the boys expression. Great color, composition, subject, angle, etc.

wolf38 (30) 2007-04-08 12:19

Hello John. Your photo shows a small boy helps to secure his existence by collecting from usable garbage to. Also this is part of social life reality at the lower end of the scale. A hard photo, - and perhaps straight therefore importantly and worth seeing. Best regards, Wolfgang.

gabrielpat (7163) 2007-04-08 18:49

how to keep clean in such a situation..just foot and hands are dirty,congratulation to this boy!to stay alive,stay rather clean.

einstem (390) 2007-04-10 9:23

Cool!!!this serie all the best.
Congradtulation,
TEM

lacroux (4562) 2007-04-13 16:18

Hello john.
Thanks for these shot of Stung Meanchey Lanfill. Again. The quality of the pictures is perfect, but the child's look speaks for itself. Thanks again for your comment; which gives us a better insight of these poor kids' distress.
regards.
Pierre

stevesaba (8167) 2007-04-25 13:32

Hi John!
An excellent picture technically John. But of course so much more then this, it is a very good piece of Photo-Journalism. Great as always! Keep up the good work. Take care,
Steve

AROBN54 (11475) 2007-05-01 20:49

Oh man, John. This is an amazing photo. The composition is perfect to draw all attention to the little boy. Light, contrast, color - all perfect. The look on his face is the clincher, though. Poor little fellow. Excellent note and good of you to make their plight known. Great shot!! Regards,
Shelly

Apex (336) 2007-05-09 18:35

Hello John.
This picture is quite compelling.
The colours and composition are well done.
TFS.
Jeff.

branley (3681) 2007-06-15 5:46

Hi JB,

it's a great capture, though it's a subject matter we all wish we didn't have to see but we know it happens in many countries and will probably never change. I love his expression but don't show this to my wife, she works with disadvantaged children and it would set the waterworks flowing! An important image my friend, well done.

Regards

Stephen

fkokol (1636) 2007-07-15 9:07

another beatiful image. His expression is very impressive. greetings,
figen

KevRyan (22956) 2007-12-03 9:29

I can't help thinking of the kid becoming the man here - already there is a look in his eyes that speak of a different way of accumulating years - your image here, Maciej's series and Kaj's from Ahmedabad (probably more so from Kaj after eight months of contact with these families) tell parts of a story which comes from the lower depths of opportunity for human beings - yet we all recognise the human being, the human needs and the potentials which exist in this young person and all the others gathering rubbish for a meagre living. We all know morally what we believe the situation should/could be and for the photographer to remind us is another step in highlighting the existence that those closer neatly put out of sight and out of mind..........there is some growing to do in any society where such a thing becomes 'normal'..........good people of Cambodia.......this is your responsibility...........Gandhi said it utilising the term 'antyodhya' - unless a society builds itself from the bottom up it will never achieve 'civilisation'. As ancient as any civilisation is and as civilised as believes itself to be I just don't see it when antyodhya is not in evidence.

So these are the thoughts your image stimulated. Photographically there are things which work well - the extra dynamism of the tilt is OK and the low POV perfect to connect with this young guy - there is a near use of the third on his head which works well to focus us on him......two small things I might look for doing differently - the stick from his head distracts me a little and the lack of a light in his eyes - although here it doesn't make him look as alien as many pictures of people do - it's not such an issue - just interesting to see what that life would bring.

take care - Best wishes Kev

jcdurka1 (1950) 2007-12-03 9:35

Great scene of life, it's very hard to see a child of maybee 8 year old working in that condition.
Great focus, great picture.
Jean-Claude