Portfolio Category - LCEA 2013

"Where We Live Matters" We often perceive slums as dark dens of poverty and despair, where criminals, juvenile delinquents, and squatters wander aimlessly amongst ramshackle, makeshift structures. We draw a clear distinction between the slum dwellers and ourselves: they are the “other”. This is how slums across the world have long been portrayed in popular discourse. “Where we live matters” is the story of the residents of the Paga Hill slum in Port Moresby, the capital city of the southwestern Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea, in which 45 percent of the population lives in slum neighborhoods. Where we live matters because our place of residence dictates whether or not we have access to basic services, whether or not we are employable, indeed, if we are even fully human in society's eyes. This project aims to challenge the viewer's perception of slum dwellers and to highlight the critical truth that, irrespective of a person's place of residence, all people have the same basic needs, hopes and fears.