Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IT’S NO SECRET that currently the top 1% of the world’s population holds 50% of the global wealth, and the bottom 50% holds a mere 1% of the wealth.
Top CEOs in America make around 350 times more than the average worker, and in 2014 the top 25 highest paid hedge fund managers were collectively paid $11.6 billion — reportedly one of the lowest figures in recent years.
In his upcoming book and touring gallery show, titled “1% Privilege in a Time of Global Inequality,” curator and photo editor Myles Little explores this complex issue by showing a collection of work from various photographers. The book, which is currently being crowd-funded via Kickstarter, is due out by December 2015.
“I want people to start a conversation about economic fairness, about our priorities, and about our values as a society,” he tells Business Insider. “Are we celebrating the right heroes? Are we treating the right people well? Or are our sympathies misguided?” These are the questions he hopes viewers of this show contemplate as they get an exclusive look into the lives of the super wealthy.
We spoke to Little about the project and how it came together.
——————————————————————————————————-
The idea for this show came to Little while on vacation in Oaxaca, Mexico, where he met with fellow curator Daniel Brena. There, they discussed photography, wealth, and inequality. Little left inspired to begin curating a selection where the three intersected.
Little set out to create a show that felt “posh.” He determined strict ground rules which helped him narrow down his selection from 2,000 images to 30.
Narrowing down the images was often a “painful decision,” Little told Business Insider. “I had to cut work that I loved simply because they didn’t strike the right mood, or have the right photographic aesthetic,” he said.
Little was very conscious not to select typical images of wealth that we see in the tabloids and through Hollywood.
“I knew I wanted to avoid the cliche, villain, fat-cat banker,” he said.
Instead, Little decided to incorporate photographs “that felt calm, as opposed to loud and satirical. I wanted to make a show that was made of beautiful, precious objects,” he said.
For this show, Little was inspired by “The Family of Man,” a curated documentary photography selection by Edward Steichen that premiered at the MOMA in 1955. “Family of Man” showed various cultures from around the world engaging in everyday activities, including work, leisure, worship, and play.
That show’s thesis was “we’re all in this together,” which Little noted is “becoming less and less accurate.”
“As wealth and equality skyrocket, the world can’t be spoken of as one place, but as two places. One for the ultra rich, and one for everyone else,” said Little.
His show borrows Steichen’s model, creating categories for the images that fit into leisure, work, worship, and play. However, Little chose to focus only on the wealthy.
While Steichen’s collection might feel like a slightly “less accurate” portrayal of modern times, Little feels the photography he’s chosen for his show has “staying power.” “I’m fortunate enough to work with photographers who are some of the best in the world,” he said.
Here, a street preacher in New York City appeals to Wall Street to repent. In Little’s opinion, this is “one of the iconic images of finance in America.”
Little aimed to choose work that spoke the same language as the wealthy. “The show is about exclusivity; it’s about privilege, and so I’m using that language of privilege and wealth to critique privilege and wealth,” he said.
Little is careful to point out: “I don’t think that all wealthy people are villains, at all. This is why I included the image of the Highline Park in New York City, which was built with huge donations from wealthy individuals. It’s just a wonderful addition to the city.”
One of Little’s major goals with the show is to provoke thought and conversation. “I welcome the conversation whether you agree with me, or think it’s totally off base. I want to hear what people have to say, I want to hear why [inequality] is an important issue, or why you don’t think it’s the right issue [to talk about] at all.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
It’s just stuff. And any rich person I know seems to spend more time worrying about their money than living their lives.
ahh the daily depression post. luv it
The second photo reminds me a little of “Thornley Manor” from Aufwiedersehn Pet.
you can have it. We are all born rich in time. That’s the most valuable thing in life. Oldest saying but money DOES NOT buy you happiness.
But it’s better to cry in a Mercedes…
Just remember it’s the richest whom supply emplyment to the poorest.
Just remember it’s the poorest who provide wealth for the richest.
and the poorest work for buttons for the richest.
Soon the rich will have nothing but buttons. Getting deep this..
@Kevin
Wealth is earned it is not “provided”.
Marty obviously skipped grammar class (should have been who instead of whom) and, while he was at it, skipped history, geography and, in later life, empathy!
Tell that to the Trust fund kids.
@infidel Really? So some people don’t inherit their wealth despite having contributed nothing?
Yes correct some people do inherit their money but not most. The top billionaires all earned every cent.
Not really some are born with the silver spoon
And you don’t think anyone was exploited along the way? Or because any of them may have been lucky to have been born into a situation where they had access to education and connections?
So everyone who is wealthy is so at the expense of the poorest? All cheats and villains? Typical lefty thinking.
The vast majority of the wealthy people are there through their hard work, on the contrast there an element of the “poor” who are generational social welfare recipients and will never work for anything – but these are untouchables in the lefty way of thinking.
Lads relax
Paul Murphy and his mates have the solution to all your problem.
We will be all getting a big chunk of the pie under their socialist utopia.
I can’t wait for our comrades to get into power next year in the glorious revolution for da paypol.
Rothschild, Goldman-Sachs, Rockerfeller, The Royal Family, etc, etc. These are dynasties. Nevermind these ‘top-billionaires’ that are listed in whatever magazine. The real wealthy are the dynasty families. Nobody can say their wealth isn’t inherited, and we might eventually see at whose expense. Be anti-socialist all you want, but these cartels are funding socialism.
Infidel, please delete your account and stop spamming.
Socialists are nothing and never will be.
And to think Bertie made his millions recycling brown envelopes
I was on the same as Bertie flight back from Istanbul just before Christmas.
I had a foreign colleague with me and told him that the man in front of us was the Irish leader during the Celtic Tiger. He could hardly believe it.
He said wow he must have fallen on hard times, he looks like a tramp.
So if he did get brown envelopes, he’s hiding it well.
Jealousy sells a lot of books…
It all depends on ones definition of “rich”
They defined it very specifically.
“My richness is life” – Bob Marley
The 1% definition is from a credit Suisse report it defines the 1% as anyone with assets less debts of $80,000 or more. The top 10% is anyone with assets less debts of $40,000
That’s it roughly in global terms. The two surprising thinks for me in the report is how wealthy France is and how poor Russia is. Ireland isn’t even listed in a lot of the figures. Probably because of the amount of crooked money in the country.
I didn’t know the Roma could afford those nice houses in Nevada.
Very nice.
Fantastic to have these kind of people to aspire to these days. It serves to remind young voters that in a capitalist society you are empowered as an individual to go as far as you make yourself.
Remember that when the socialists pump out their popular politics in a few months.
Been in that pool in Marina Bay sands, it’s fantastic!
have your say