Play in Garbage - Managua's Landfill Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is Managua's landfill. It stretches as far as the eye can see, set on a plateau above one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country. Here over five hundred people live, sleep, eat and play. It is not a life they choose out of want, but forced into by circumstance. In the next two weeks, I will post the photo story of this horrible place. This modern day tragety.

A young child plays among the heaps of garabage that he calls home. He plays with the toys that other children deemed unworthy and broken.

serenadanesi, Albrecht, joseelias, dmitriy55 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

nygus (8077) 2005-07-11 7:47

take a look at this theme :
http://www.trekearth.com/themes.php?thid=2240

gaudi-spirit (187) 2005-07-11 8:17

Interesting shot mark. What a landscape ! The child's life seems to be hard. :(

Homerhomer (4005) 2005-07-11 9:14

On par with Maciek's photos from the garbage.
Very, very sad.
Peter

jcandeli (40) 2005-07-11 11:32

Wow. a powerful photo! I wonder if you could have lightened the boy a little more. Or possibly the background instead. They seem to blend a lot and neither really sticks out. Maybe a subtle vignette would work but that is my cure for everything. :) I won't say anything about the centered composition today because I posted a cenetered one myself. :)
JP

Albrecht (11267) 2005-07-12 3:37

Hi Mark
I am always impressed and a bit sad to see this kind of shot. It is reality, but I have never seen that myself, only on TV, so it looks so far away. Good picture!Thanks for sharing
Greetings Albrecht

joseelias (367) 2005-07-20 12:15

This in fact a revolting image. It’s sad how some people can only find these ways to survive. The image is ok but in this case the use of the fill flash could have been a good idea. Due to the positioning of the sun the shades in the boy are quite strong, and also due to the fact that he his small in the frame make that some details are lost. Also feel the need for more sharpness (easily correctible though). Again, the centered POV is a good idea because the ground in his back, despite the many textures in not very obtrusive and thus don’t compete with the boy.

philip_coggan (11) 2005-08-05 8:54

I would suggest a more adventurous composition - wide angle lens, get up close to the child, have him fill the foreground (cropped even), with the hut in the b/g - more drama, plus more emphasis on the idea that this is this child's home. At any rate, I wouldn't take this looking down on the child like this - he should be bulking large.