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CHARTA
Kike Arnal: In the Shadow of Power
Foreword by Fred Ritchin. Introduction by Ralph Nader.
In the Shadow of Power is a shocking visual exposé of the harsh social and economic realities in the capital city of the richest nation on earth. Washington, D.C., is much more than its tourist destinations, and Venezuelan-born photographer Kike Arnal's book describes a search for that other city: a city that, incredibly, has the nation's highest infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and AIDS infection rates, and where 16 percent of local children live in extreme poverty. "With a population of roughly 570,000 people, the District of Columbia is, by world standards, a small city," Arnal writes. "Its manageable size would seem to indicate that Washington could fulfill expectations naturally associated with a city of its global stature, to take care of its people. The disparity that I saw compelled me to spend the next few years documenting Washington, D.C., in order to draw attention to the realities of the city." Arnal first visited Washington in 2002 while on an assignment, and was stunned by the poverty he encountered ("I was… reminded of the marginal barrios back in my home country,"he recalls); here he brings to light the lives behind these grim statistics.
FROM THE BOOK
"Photography, which can only be done close by, is said to make the invisible visible. The poverty, addiction, illnesses and homelessness that pervade Washington, D.C., are all highly visible but mostly ignored, rendered invisible. "Perhaps if Washington, D.C., was considered a foreign country the media would try harder to cover its denizens while suddenly realizing, as happened in New Orleans, that we do not know our own. "Kike Arnal, who is Venezuelan, decided to enter the shadows that rim glitzy press conferences and sought-after soirées, amazed that so many lives were festering away within a few minute’s walk of transcendent power…These are contrasts that are not supposed to exist here, or anywhere, but certainly not at a superpower's core. "Washington, as a place of visions, now can add In the Shadow of Power. In shades of gray the murkiness is probed, fragments of anguish exposed, painful contrasts fractionally illuminated."
Published by Charta. Foreword by Fred Ritchin. Introduction by Ralph Nader.
In the Shadow of Power is a shocking visual exposé of the harsh social and economic realities in the capital city of the richest nation on earth. Washington, D.C., is much more than its tourist destinations, and Venezuelan-born photographer Kike Arnal's book describes a search for that other city: a city that, incredibly, has the nation's highest infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and AIDS infection rates, and where 16 percent of local children live in extreme poverty. "With a population of roughly 570,000 people, the District of Columbia is, by world standards, a small city," Arnal writes. "Its manageable size would seem to indicate that Washington could fulfill expectations naturally associated with a city of its global stature, to take care of its people. The disparity that I saw compelled me to spend the next few years documenting Washington, D.C., in order to draw attention to the realities of the city." Arnal first visited Washington in 2002 while on an assignment, and was stunned by the poverty he encountered ("I was… reminded of the marginal barrios back in my home country,"he recalls); here he brings to light the lives behind these grim statistics.
