Italian photographer faces backlash for ‘poverty porn’ photo series on hunger in India

The pictures by Italian photographer Alessio Mamo, which show children covering their eyes next to fake meals, went viral after the World Press Photo Foundation shared them on Instagram.

Updated on: Jul 25, 2018, 16:58:48 IST

Reuters | By Anonymous

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A series of photographs on hunger in India that show villagers posing next to tables full of food has sparked a backlash online and been branded as exploitative “poverty porn” by critics.

The pictures by Italian photographer Alessio Mamo, which show children covering their eyes next to fake meals, went viral after the World Press Photo Foundation shared them on Instagram.

Mamo apologised in a statement on Tuesday after several Instagram and Twitter users criticised the “Dreaming Food” series, with many posting the hashtag #PovertyPorn in protest.

“This is extremely insensitive. There are better ways to raise awareness than to try and snatch dignity away from people,” Instagram user shraddhanjalis said in a post. “A little empathy would go a long way. Poor people are not props.”

Yet other social media users defended the series as an attempt to shock and engage the public on the issue of hunger.

These photographs are from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh two of the poorest states of India. From the series "Dreaming Food", a conceptual project about hunger issue in India. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ [This project has been the subject of much online debate. Please read Alessio Mamo’s statement, released on 24 July 2018, giving more details and apologising for any offence: https://medium.com/@alessio.mamo/my-statement-on-dreaming-food-7169257d2c5c] ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My name is Alessio Mamo (@alessio_mamo) an Italian freelance photographer based in Catania, Sicily. In 2008 I began my career in photojournalism focusing on contemporary social, political and economic issues. I extensively cover issues related to refugee displacement and migration starting in Sicily, and extending most recently to the Middle East. I was awarded 2nd prize in the People Singles category of #WPPh2018 and this week I’m taking over World Press Photo's Instagram account. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Despite economic growth, a majority of the Indian population still lives in extreme poverty and disease. Behind India’s new-found economic strength are 300 million poor people who live on less than $1 per day. Government figures may indicate a reduction in poverty. But the truth is, with increasing global food prices, poverty is spreading everywhere like a swarm of locusts. These pictures are taken in rural areas where conditions are worse than in the cities and where close to 70% of India’s population reside today. Statistics show that 2.1 million children under 5 years old die of malnutrition annually. The idea of this project was born after reading the statistics of how much food is thrown away in the West, especially during Christmas time. I brought with me a table and some fake food, and I told people to dream about some food that they would like to find on their table. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #WPPh2018#asia #dreamingfood #india

A post shared by World Press Photo Foundation (@worldpressphoto) on Jul 22, 2018 at 9:30am PDT

“The only goal ... was to let western people think, in a provocative way, about the waste of food,” said Mamo, who took the photos in 2011 in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

“Maybe I did it in the wrong way, but I worked honestly and respectfully with all the people involved. I only had the intention to let people think,” his statement said.

In response to the online backlash, World Press Photo - home to one of the world’s leading news photography prizes - said in a statement that photographers were responsible for selecting which pictures to post on the organisation’s Instagram account.

At least 194 million Indians go hungry daily, says the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, while India ranked near the bottom of the 2017 Global Hunger Index, at 100 of 119 countries.

A third of all food produced worldwide is lost or wasted before it can be eaten, said Danielle Nierenberg, president of the US-based research group Food Tank.

“I hope that all artists and journalists look at the issue of food insecurity and food waste in a way that doesn’t objectify poor people or ignore the true struggles and challenges they face,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The issue of “poverty porn” hit global headlines in December when a charity appeal starring British singer Ed Sheeran won Radi-Aid’s Rusty Radiator Award for the worst fundraising video - for what judges deemed offensive depictions of suffering.

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