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‘Scavengers’ Photography Exhibition by Steve Pace
Eat Me Restaurant and Gallery hosted the opening of a thought-provoking image collection.
Bangkok-based British photographer Steve Pace puts himself in the danger zone once again to give us an up-close and personal look at the lives of the less fortunate. ‘Scavengers’ documents the daily lives of trash pickers who live in some of the most dangerous and horrendous conditions.
According to Steve, ‘There are many ways to photograph, and for me there's a certain honesty in being close to the heart of a situation.’ The photographs reveal just how close and personal he got with his subjects, walking with them amid the slums and mountains of garbage at Shung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump in southern Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Steve agrees he takes a lot of risk and goes to places most people would rather avoid, but he believes doing so is what makes a ‘truthful’ photograph. He explains, ‘You experience, in a way, what your subjects are going through to a certain degree.’ His goal is to show a wide audience how others live and how vulnerable their precarious existence makes them.
It may seem unappetising to display such images in a restaurant, but the photographs encouraged thoughtful dinner conversation. One guest remarked, ‘It's so shocking to know that people are living on garbage. Even what they eat is covered with flies. It's a landscape of garbage that can look almost picturesque from afar, but once you get a closer look, you realise how sad it is, especially the fact that children are working and living there.’
‘Scavengers’ will be on display to 31 August 2012. Eat Me Restaurant and Gallery is open to the public daily from 3pm to 1am. The restaurant/gallery is located next to Carmelite Monastery on Convent Road near Sala Daeng skytrain station. Restaurant inquiries can be made by phone on +66 2 238 0931 or by visiting www.eatmerestaurant.com.
26/07/2012 - 10:47
