Edition 2021

CHOW AND LIN

THE POVERTY LINE

The Poverty Line uses the universal lens of food to examine the daily choices we would face living at the poverty line. Over the last ten years, artists travelled 200,000 kilometers to create case studies of 36 countries and territories spanning six continents. Each photograph beckons scrutiny while inviting the observer to try to make sense of the whole. Individual portraits of food items bathed in dramatic light imbue a few bananas, scattered rice grains or a leg of chicken with existential meaning. The Poverty Line is a growing conversation that investigates our understanding of poverty and inequality. Covering various cultures and economic systems, it confronts the viewer with objective, non-emotional observations of our own circumstances framed against the fragile balance of social structures, growth and divide in an entangled globalized world.

Winners of the Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award 2019.
Publication: Le Seuil de pauvreté, Actes Sud, 2020.
The publication of this book was made possible by the Luma Foundation, the Rencontres d'Arles with the collaboration of Éditions Actes Sud. And the support of Lars Muller Publishers and the Ayam brand.
Prints by Initial Labo, Paris.

With support from National Arts Council, Singapore.

  • Institutional partners

    • République Française
    • Région Provence Alpes Côté d'Azur
    • Département des Bouches du Rhône
    • Arles
    • Le Centre des monuments nationaux est heureux de soutenir les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles en accueillant des expositions dans l’abbaye de Montmajour
  • Main partners

    • Fondation LUMA
    • BMW
    • SNCF
    • Kering
  • Media partners

    • Arte
    • Lci
    • Konbini
    • Le Point
    • Madame Figaro
    • France Culture