honorable mention
Javier sanchez-monge escardo spain
title
DUMPSITE CHILDHOODS
On a daily basis they face illnesses, cough continuously due to the burning of the waste, help their brothers and sisters, struggle to survive by scavenging on a daily basis, and many times obtain their food from the waste.
Oblivious to their surroundings, the children of the dumpsite force themselves to carry on
with their lives just like any other child would, playing, loving, crying or laughing.
Since they are just children and they were born into that world, they all believe that
this is what the world and life is about.
Their childhood however, is far from
privileged; as soon as they are able, they will have to work hard by scavenging for
plastic bottles, metal scraps or any other rests thrown away by the more privileged part
of society.
Their meals will consist mainly of rice and the only proteins at their reach will come
from an occasional frog, rat ,lizard or snake caught by them or their parents. As
newborns, the child mortality is high and most of the children are continuously coughing
as if they were smokers, since day and night they breathe toxic smoke and fumes coming
from the burning of garbage and plastic. Many have chronic illnesses, external and
internal parasites, and have no doctor to go to. The water they drink is contaminated, and diarrhea combined with dehydration can turn fatal.
Their involvement in child labor prevents them from going to school and therefore from becoming something else in life but scavengers.
It is only later, when they become teenagers and learn on how the rest of the human
society discriminates them, when will know what their fate was meant to be.
His works have been published on El País, La Vanguardia, El Confidencial, El Día, El Diario de Navarra, and about climate change through the Spanish agency Agencia EFE. Regularly he publishes on Periodistas en Español, addressed to Spanish speaking audiences.
More recently Javier Sánchez-Monge Escardó has been awarded the IPA Spanish Edition title of Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year (2017), Nominee by the LUCIE FOUNDATION for his works on climate change among four other international candidates to become the Deeper Perspective Photographer of the year 2017 and his works on Climate change were shown at the Dale Carnegie Hall in New York on October 2017.
Some of his prints have been exhibited at international photo Exhibits on behalf of the LUCIE FOUNDATION ( At the Mayors Summit , for the UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE 2015 -Addressing Climate Change-) or also on behalf of the Lucie Foundation on the MOPLA (Month of Photography Los Angeles). As well on behalf of the ALFRED FRIED AWARDS at the UNESCO building in Paris, and throughout different countries, such as in 2016, when travelling as part of the “Best of the Show” travelling photo exhibit organized by the International Photography Awards (IPA).
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entry description
The image series belongs to a long term project intending to portray the Children of the Dumpsite with dignity, and as the children they represent, despite their extremely difficult living conditions. They play ,laugh love and live lives like any other children because this is the world they were born into and this is how they imagine their lives should be.On a daily basis they face illnesses, cough continuously due to the burning of the waste, help their brothers and sisters, struggle to survive by scavenging on a daily basis, and many times obtain their food from the waste.
Oblivious to their surroundings, the children of the dumpsite force themselves to carry on
with their lives just like any other child would, playing, loving, crying or laughing.
Since they are just children and they were born into that world, they all believe that
this is what the world and life is about.
Their childhood however, is far from
privileged; as soon as they are able, they will have to work hard by scavenging for
plastic bottles, metal scraps or any other rests thrown away by the more privileged part
of society.
Their meals will consist mainly of rice and the only proteins at their reach will come
from an occasional frog, rat ,lizard or snake caught by them or their parents. As
newborns, the child mortality is high and most of the children are continuously coughing
as if they were smokers, since day and night they breathe toxic smoke and fumes coming
from the burning of garbage and plastic. Many have chronic illnesses, external and
internal parasites, and have no doctor to go to. The water they drink is contaminated, and diarrhea combined with dehydration can turn fatal.
Their involvement in child labor prevents them from going to school and therefore from becoming something else in life but scavengers.
It is only later, when they become teenagers and learn on how the rest of the human
society discriminates them, when will know what their fate was meant to be.
about the photographer
avier Sánchez-Monge Escardó is a Spanish photographer and philosopher born in 1965 in Madrid who has travelled and lived throughout different countries in an effort to document both humanitarian and environmental causes, specially dedicating himself in the past two years to the issue of climate change and to the man-made era of the anthropocene, among other issues of humanitarian nature, such as the Rohingya refugees.His works have been published on El País, La Vanguardia, El Confidencial, El Día, El Diario de Navarra, and about climate change through the Spanish agency Agencia EFE. Regularly he publishes on Periodistas en Español, addressed to Spanish speaking audiences.
More recently Javier Sánchez-Monge Escardó has been awarded the IPA Spanish Edition title of Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year (2017), Nominee by the LUCIE FOUNDATION for his works on climate change among four other international candidates to become the Deeper Perspective Photographer of the year 2017 and his works on Climate change were shown at the Dale Carnegie Hall in New York on October 2017.
Some of his prints have been exhibited at international photo Exhibits on behalf of the LUCIE FOUNDATION ( At the Mayors Summit , for the UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE 2015 -Addressing Climate Change-) or also on behalf of the Lucie Foundation on the MOPLA (Month of Photography Los Angeles). As well on behalf of the ALFRED FRIED AWARDS at the UNESCO building in Paris, and throughout different countries, such as in 2016, when travelling as part of the “Best of the Show” travelling photo exhibit organized by the International Photography Awards (IPA).
back to gallery