Tonight in Manhattan, walking across 110th Street alongside the stunning granite retaining wall alongside Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC, I saw an arresting display of magnificent large black and white images of poverty in America: desolate, dignified, beautiful, evocative of strong and conflicting emotions. Conflicting because of the simultaneous aesthetic appreciation of the artistry of these images and the negative emotions of seeing the destitution of this supposedly strong, wealthy nation. At the end of the wall, sheltered by the mass of the overhangs and stepped doorways on the side of the Cathedral, I came to a homeless encampment of about half a dozen people. As image starkly became real life, tears came to my eyes.
Art for social change. Powerful to have it displayed outdoors.
The photo installation is part of photographer Matt Black’s The Geography of Poverty project:
The Geography of Poverty is a digital documentary project by photographer Matt Black that combines geotagged photographs with census data to create a modern portrait of poverty in the US. In the summer of 2015 Black embarks on a cross-country trip to explore, document, and spark discussion about contemporary poverty and growing income inequality in the US.
According to the Census Bureau’s measure of poverty—$11,490 annual income for a person or $23,550 for a family of four—over 45 million people qualify as poor in the US, the largest number seen in the 50 years for which poverty data have been published. [My emphasis]. At the same time the share of income going to the top one percent of the population has more than doubled since the 1970s, rising from nine percent in 1976 to 20 percent in 2011. At the very top, the richest 0.1 percent’s share of the national wealth has tripled, rising from seven percent in 1979 to 22 percent in 2012.
Fifty years after the War on Poverty, this project seeks to focus attention on America’s poorest places and highlight the country’s growing gap between rich and poor. Following a preplanned route across the southern and northern portions of the United States, the project will seek to cross the country without crossing the poverty line, profiling cities and towns large and small, rural and urban, across a diverse range of US communities and regions, each touching on a distinct issues surrounding poverty.
Although Black’s 18,000 mile cross-country photographic trek is physically complete, he says “the journey is not complete”:
18,000 miles later, I want to thank you for following this journey as I photographed some of America’s geography of poverty. The route was long, but now that I am back in California’s Central Valley, I feel as if I never really left. These communities are connected by much more than statistics and dots on the map.
A final acknowledgment and thanks is needed to those whose support made this trip possible: @magnumfoundation, @pulitzercenter, @economichardship, and @msnbcphoto. Many others helped along the way, and your engagement here in this space meant much. Thank you.
This journey is not yet complete: please watch here for more.
I urge you to look at Black’s stunning photography at his website The Geography of Poverty and to learn more about the project at the Pulitzer Center, where educators can also find resources to use this project to build a lesson plan around issues of poverty and hunger in the U.S.
This holiday season, please join me in making as generous a donation as you can (in money, food, or time) to your local homeless shelter or food bank, whatever local institution you think best serves the needs of the hungry and/or homeless in your area. If you are not sure about homeless centers near you, you can search this easy to use website to find one that serves your locality. Likewise, this user-friendly website can help you easily find a food bank near you.
May all beings, without exception, know freedom from suffering! May we all enjoy true peace!
