Do you know how the one per cent live? Source: Supplied
In response to skyrocketing wealth inequality around the globe, New York-based photo editor Myles Little has set out to document the “ecosystem of privilege, from work to education to leisure”, through a series of striking photographs.
“While we may think we understand wealth through Hollywood and tabloids, what we see only represents only a drop in the bucket,” Mr Little writes of his exhibition, 1% Privilege in a Time of Global Inequality.
In 2014, for example, the top five hedge fund managers in the US made around $US1 billion each, and yet not one of them is a household name.
When the Harvard Business School asked Americans how much they think major CEOs make relative to ordinary workers, the median thought the ratio was perhaps 30 to 1.
“The reality? It’s closer to 350 to 1. The elite depends on this misperception to get enormous tax breaks and other favourable treatment from governments,” he says.
While the exhibition attempts to be “global in scale”, its limited size and “quiet, beautiful style ... recalls the private photography collection of a wealthy patron”.
The photos juxtapose how the lives of rich and poor intertwine.
“Here we see Christopher Anderson’s neo-Biblical photo of a street preacher in front of the New York Stock Exchange,” Mr Little writes.
“We see Guillaume Bonn’s painterly image of maids in a wealthy Kenyan household. We see Nina Berman’s photo of an American church that claims Jesus wants us to be rich — and of the hopeful crowds who have come to hear its message.”
The top one per cent hold 50 per cent of the world’s wealth, while the bottom 50 per cent hold one per cent of the wealth. “Is this the kind of world we want to live in? To answer that question we must first make the invisible visible. We must shine a light on the hidden world of the ultra rich. This exhibition does just that.”
Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 2009. Pic: David Leventi Source: Supplied
North Mara mine, Tanzania. Pic: David Chancellor. Source: Supplied
A street preacher appeals to Wall Street to repent, 2011. Pic: Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos. Source: Supplied
Varvara in her home cinema, Moscow, 2010. Pic: Anna Skladmann. Source: Supplied
Cheshire, Ohio, 2009. Pic: Daniel Shea. Source: Supplied
Packard Automotive Plant, Detroit, 2009. Pic: Andrew Moore. Source: Supplied
Roma Hills guard-gated homes, Henderson, Nevada, 2012. Pic: Michael Light. Source: Supplied
Hollywood, California, 2007. Pic: Jesse Chehak. Source: Supplied
James, 25, a British driving instructor, receives a nose-job. Pic: Zed Nelson. Source: Supplied
The Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore, 2013. Pic: Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti/INSTITUTE. Source: Supplied
The future site of the Highline, New York City, 2004-05. Pic: Jesse Chehak. Source: Supplied
