La Chureca
La Chureca (‘the scavenger’) is located in Managua, Nicaragua and is home to one of the largest inhabited dump communities in the world. With a population of 1700 housed within its walls, over fifty percent of them are children under 18. It is a permanent, living community where babies are born, children are raised and educated, and people work as recyclers, exposed to illness and environmental dangers.
On the surface, the people of La Chureca appear imprisoned within a trash dump, suffering extreme poverty, addiction, and health problems. However, in getting to know the youth, I witnessed something else: a richer, deeper life beyond the trash that is often ignored by visitors, such as myself, for the more shocking aspects of their lives. They have a childhood, develop meaningful relationships, and experience boredom and loneliness, like anyone else. These children, enduring brutal, dehumanizing living conditions, are still playful, curios, and passionate. Such simplicities can be forgotten when seeing people who literally live amid trash. It’s unimaginable, yet also a reality taken for granted by those who live there.
This series is intended to offer a fresh perspective and thus does not share the assumption that the people of La Chureca, and those in similar situations, endure a ceaselessly miserable existence. Devoid of the now familiar images of hordes of people picking through trash, shack homes on the verge of collapse, or naked children dangerously perched on mounds of filth, I tease out the mundane, everyday moments that draw us together as people and offer a deeper understanding of our common humanity.
Photographs: Brian Shumway
Website: brianshumway.com
Amazing command with the media, a poetic implementation of the information, a noble decision on how to deliver this story and certainly something i would have no issue paying to see on the walls of a gallery.
Congratulations Brian, you should be very proud of this and I hope this work opens the doors for you to do more meaningful work like this.
The best or one of the best essay I’ve seen on BURN to now.
Excellent in every way.
Hats off.
Brian,
You are very good photographer. You have own style and vision. Many of us should learn from you (me).
Do you know Rafal Milach’s works?
it should be interesting for you:
http://rafalmilach.com/
JOE…MARCIN…
i agree….and, there are more…after we locked this down, Brian sent me an e-mail which included an attachment that i totally missed..with pictures he should have included in the first place…i suppose he “second guessed” himself…a pretty normal occurrence ..i only caught it as i was writing to tell Brian his story was up and then i could not get it unpublished so we could fix it (my lack of tech expertise)…anyway, we will add the others tonight or as soon as possible….this is a subject which we have seen so many times before , but this essay by Brian is special in every way…it never matters what has been done before…a fresh eye will always get us….
cheers, david
The photos are great and a style of photography that I like; but, they appear not as an essay but a random selection of photographs. They don’t, for me, tell a story. About half of these hanging on a wall in printed in large sizes would be something I’d like to see, though.
JIM…
how can these photographs be random?? they are all from the same place at the same time??? certainly there was the old tried and true a,b,c,d,e,f, g, “how to- picture story” that went away about 30 years ago at least, and only occurred even then at newspapers in the U.S….please , for all of us, give us an example of a set of photographs taken today that would in your mind be a “picture story”…for me, this is quite clearly an essay and gives us a powerful message…but, i am more than willing to find out exactly what you are thinking…you know what i think, so i would like to know what you think…by example please….
cheers, david
“how can these photographs be random??”
this should be my question…. random??
Very special Brian, congratulations: looking forward to seeing more later.
Your approach is just right, you show that even in the most appalling situations, the human spirit endures; not that it should have to endure such poverty. Our shared humanity shines through.
Viewing on my MacBook, I didn’t realize that the compositions were square as I couldn’t see all of the photograph; I will view again on my IMac. medium-format photojournalism! Not seen that for a while – makes me want to try film again! From what I can see from the thumbnails, you have great composition skills.
Very special, thanks for sharing.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Just looked at your website Brian; you command the square! Not easy to do.
So many strong photographs on your website Brian; number 21 from Camp Wesley is an immediate favorite.
Mike.
I think Brian has an interesting point, however I can’t see it (maybe it’s the pictures missing?)
I like your approach. I just want to see some more happiness (?) and maybe in colour. or maybe it’s my damn mood
STELIOS…
i think it is your mood or maybe this is just not your cup of tea…however, the new pictures will not change how you feel about this…they will just add to the strength of how much Brian has done…
I like the approach. And his findings after spending some time there.
it’s definitely my damn mood. I’d still prefer it in colour though. not meaning to put down the photographers work.
O.k. Brian; I’ve seen your essay on the big screen. Impressive; your use of medium format is masterful.
The opening photograph is beautiful / appalling: the larger the image the more flies one can see. People; anything, should not have to live like this. Photographs, especially (for me) black & white photographs, have the power to transcend being windows to what they portray and become objects in themselves. So it is possible to think “what a wonderful photograph” when what it depicts is less than wholesome.
Mike.
This is a wonderful collection of photographs. I enjoyed seeing them very much.
My only remark doesn’t have to do with the photos, per say. Just that even with my monitor set at 1280×800 I still couldn’t fit the entire photograph on my screen. I watched it once trying to scroll up and down to see the whole thing, then I noticed the “full screen” mode button and I had to watch it again.
But again very powerful set of photos.
THIS is the STORY this essay gives me:
the resiliency of the human spirit in the face of adversity… we should learn from the children…
thank you very much Brian. thank you very very much.
This essay is a perfect example of why I keep dragging my stupid ass back to BURN. Stunningly superb! Thank you!
Brian,
All I can say is that this is a wonderful essay…I agree with Marcin, one of the very best essays so far…. Moving, poetic, so many great shots…
Eric
I agree with the first comment left by Joe… Fantastic work….love, love, love the square (my first love is my Hasselblad). A fresh and sensitive take on the strength of the human spirit to persist, even when having to “make do” in conditions such as this. Great job, Brian.
A really good set of pictures. Very strong. Very ‘tight’. I enjoyed going through them several times.
A strong story no doubt.
If I have one small concern it is that the images and therefore the ‘visual’ part of the essay do not seem to ‘lock’ in with the written preamble as tightly as I thought they might. This in no way lessens my enjoyment of what is very very sound photography that is well put together, but after reading the intro I had a preconceived idea of the story and it didnt match the story I saw. [ its why I personally dont like words much, i guess, they can set up an expectation, or a pre-judgement]
Again, Really good work, would love to see big bromides of it on a wall.
Nice to see this done on 6×6 as well.
Peace
John
Hi David/ Burn,
I miss the search option on the site, so you can search on keywords. Now it can be difficult to find certain comments/ subjects, reading back things etc. I would like an option of question/ answer or a general platform apart from the pictures/ essays, f.e by adding your own subject on which people can respond. In that way questions/ comments apart from those on the pictures/ essays have their space. I like burn very much, lots of insight, interesting comments/ questions, think- abouts, thank you for this inspiring platform!
Bye, David
First, let me say I regret that in #8, the pool wall eats up a bit on the child’s right eye. Maybe I can be shown it is not detrimental to the greatness of the shot… Bravo, anyway!
OK, pretty much in my court, this type of photography. Can’t not like it. Yet, a few points: in general first. I am not sure that B&W should be the medium for that genre (children in adverse conditions TODAY!). It sure is a perennial subject, but your text tells us to look at it a new, not as we, assumingly, did before. Then, some pictures do stand very well in that medium, so just a GENERAL thought on 21ST CENTURY docu photography.
My critique on your essay is that I do not sense you established, yet, the kind of contact that could really make what you write about “life, not just misery” shine from your pictures. All the kids seem taken as you came across them, almost as a tourist could come across them. You look at them, they look back, so to speak. There is contact of course, and some pictures do not need much of it to be superb (woman breasting her child in shaded corner), but since we are talking essay, this was my first reflection.
Stelios does have a point, IMO. It is easy to bring Life!, out of children when we do not show their mental or physical sufferings. Exactly why children photography is at once so ubiquitous and yet, one of the hardest subjects to bring about. We could hope for more laughter, playing, mischievousness, interaction between them and the world about, etc… This said, the poetic and tender, even restrained look you shot them with, in these pictures, does convey true compassion. It’ s only reading your intro that these thoughts came to me as I watch the essay.
I do learn a lot from looking at that kind of work. Thansk to David and thanks to you for bringing it out.
David, I was speaking of random in order of selection. They just don’t make a coherent essay to me. Great photos. Just not a story.
“These children, enduring brutal, dehumanizing living conditions, are still playful, curios, and passionate.”
I did not get this from these photos. The children, regardless of what they are pictured doing, look haunted with a deep sadness to me.
amazing work…. there are no words left for me here… everything has been said… thank you….
Very good work. Love the B&W. Even though I love color, I don’t think this would have been as powerful in color.
DAVID ROZING…
good idea…let me find out if we can do it..
ERIC…
where in the world have you been?? i need to speak with you soonest about your essay…i want to publish it pronto…
cheers, david
HERVE…
hmmm, i like the almost missing eye…adds just the right amount of tension…and one of my favorites of the set…
by the way, i also like your wedding picture…will try to publish at “just the right time”…to add just the right amount of tension….
cheers, david
This is a great essay. I just got back from visiting a dump in Maputo, Mozambique so I was particularly interested in this essay. I was unfortunate to not be able to photograph in the dump as the group I was visiting had a policy against cameras – trying to be sensitive that it is people’s homes, not just a heap of trash. And while I think I would have been able to respect that privacy, I can see that if they are bringing lots of guests there every week, it would be best for them to not be taking pictures. To me there’s no occasion of telling someone’s story that doesn’t require that respect.
I appreciate your feedback on Brian’s great shot in the pool, David, and my submission (I hate that world, who wants to submit?) as well, needless say.
DAVID,
I have been for 3 weeks in Europe, just back in Cinci for 10 days…The family will be in the US until July and I am commuting between Belgium and here every 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, my office computer that I use when I travel does not allow me to post comments (not sure what is the reason) so while I follow very closely what is going on, it is proving difficult for me to comment…. Anyway, I would of course love to connect with you on the essay…Let me know if you want me to give you a call or connect through mail on the edit….
Looking forward to next steps.
Cheers.
Eric
Wow, wow, wow. Very powerful coherent essay that honors these people. Stunning, masterful work and the approach is refreshing. Words fail. Greatly enjoyed your website as well Brian, it’s on my very shortlist of best bookmarks. Really, I can’t say enough.
So, Brian where are you going with this work? Does it fit into a larger picture for you? Was this assignment based for an NGO?
I think this is a great series, and I love the pictures and the square format. I have to wonder, though, why Brian chose to focus on children to “tease out the mundane, everyday moments that draw us together as people”? I ask because I worry that it’s too easy to see our common humanity in children, that we’re inclined to see children as innocent and therefore undeserving of poverty, whereas adults can be seen to have brought their poverty on themselves. This post (http://www.knitnut.net/?p=816) articulates that worry much better than I can.
I like the work, but my take on this essay is that it’s pretty heavy, empty, lonely, quiet and has a some kind of passive feel to it in most pictures, unlike other things mentioned in the introduction. The emotions are very subtle if you ask me. I miss different energies, I think it’s more monotone than real life which I, f.e, read about in the introduction. So the message of the essay presented by these pictures is somewhat confusing to me.
Bye, David
hi everyone, just wanna say thanks for the thoughtful replies. not sure how much i should weigh in, since i am the photographer. so i’ll let it speak for itself and continue to ingest what you all have to say.
brian
The opening shot is quite something. It looks to me like the baby is snugly wrapped in kelp like some kind of water baby. A Beautiful photograph.
The essay is a tour de force.
Brian,
I think you fully reached your target of showing “the mundane, everyday moments” in this essay. Most of the images are strong, absolutely self-standing shots, and your b&w is superb (just a curiosity: are these scans from negatives or from prints?). Just a couple of pictures look weaker to me and could be removed without detriment for the whole thing, but that’s a minor thougth.
I think that the introduction should mention where in the world “la chureca” is located: it is obviously south america, but I had to go to your website to find out that is Nicaragua we are talking about.
dope. Good work Brian. Beautiful people.
The only thing I didn’t like about this essay was that every picture didn’t have a caption. I had no idea that that places like this exist. You really did a great job of immersing the audience in this place and the way of life. I didn’t think about the rest of the world or how this fit into it, but just about this place. Every individual photo was very powerful, and had its own different emotional aura. All I can say is thank you for making this. I am happy that I know about it now.
Brian — well seen, consistent, powerful, complex, direct, heartfelt, skillful… i like that the 16×16 prints on your website are $296, not $295 or $300 :-)
i’ll be looking for your name, obviously your name is or will be in many editor’s rolodex’s.
cheers
Powerful, real, superbly photographed. Heartbreaking.
Sublime, a fairy-tell fired by the ache of the heart, and devastating….the horse of this flesh that leads the child of this mother’s breast milk away….
sublime and devastating…
and, i dreamed of the work (yes, true), 6 months ago…how we are all connected….
heartbreak and august….
thank you for sharing…
bob
En el calendario:
la ausencia.
Ventanas blancas
por donde escapa
tu imagen.
La soledad me alivia.
Me distiende la piel.
Recobro el sonido de
la vida interior
ensordecida por tus palabras.
Ventanas blancas de los días
me vacían de rencor.
Caen afuera las primeras lluvias.
Mi soledad huele a tierra mojada.
Mi vientre se llena de viento.
En unos días más olvidaré
el contorno preciso de tu rostro.
Entonces empezaré a desearte
otra vez.
Descartaré el olvido, la rabia.
La nostalgia me mojará
y yo también oleré a humedad.
Desde las ventanas blancas del calendario
me mirarán tus ojos de antes,
los del amor.
Esperaré deshojada
la resurrección de la carne
de lo que fuimos.
Removerá mi alma las alacenas
del optimismo.
Pondré alpiste en las ventanas
y aguardaré el pico duro de tu boca
tu mirada de pájaro.
Temblando.
-Gioconda Belli
Sublime, a fairy-tell fired by the ache of the heart, and devastating….the horse of this flesh that leads the child of this mother’s breast milk away….
sublime and devastating…
and, i dreamed of the work (yes, true), 6 months ago…how we are all connected….
heartbreak and august….
thank you for sharing…
bob
En el calendario:
la ausencia.
Ventanas blancas
por donde escapa
tu imagen.
La soledad me alivia.
Me distiende la piel.
Recobro el sonido de
la vida interior
ensordecida por tus palabras.
Ventanas blancas de los días
me vacían de rencor.
Caen afuera las primeras lluvias.
Mi soledad huele a tierra mojada.
Mi vientre se llena de viento.
En unos días más olvidaré
el contorno preciso de tu rostro.
Entonces empezaré a desearte
otra vez.
Descartaré el olvido, la rabia.
La nostalgia me mojará
y yo también oleré a humedad.
Desde las ventanas blancas del calendario
me mirarán tus ojos de antes,
los del amor.
Esperaré deshojada
la resurrección de la carne
de lo que fuimos.
Removerá mi alma las alacenas
del optimismo.
Pondré alpiste en las ventanas
y aguardaré el pico duro de tu boca
tu mirada de pájaro.
Temblando.
-Gioconda Belli
Abele Quaregna
FYI, Nicaragua is in Central America not South America, a muy huge difference.
best
kat~
sorry for not properly identifying myself..
kat~
Sappho/Kat,
you are absolutely right of course: muy shame on my side… also because I hate the fact that, in my country, the word “America” is almost always used as a synonym of “USA”… and at the end, a not so precise language leads to an unclear thought and dangerous generalization. Gracias!
One point I’d like to make for those laying out the magazine, I’m looking at this work on a MacBook and I need to scroll just a little to see the images in their entirety. Is this magazine aimed at viewers with studio displays? I’m sure there are many among us without these big screens.
Hi Brian,
Let me start by saying I worked in the clinic at La Chureca for several years, so I am completely biased on the subject matter…I think you have made some incredible photographs, and your written words are a great approach to the story. I will say that, what I miss most is the interactions between family members. Be it brothers and sisters, or parents and children, etc. I think you absolutely have the school relationships, and I’m not sure that you NEED the relationships between family in there; it’s just as a very biased viewer, and given your written piece, that is what I miss most. Beautiful beautiful images, however. Cheers.
i really like this work and i appreciate that you are coming from a more
uplifting “angle” than most probably would in an essay about this place.
after reading your words here:
“This series is intended to offer a fresh perspective on the lives of those whom we unthinkingly assume endure a ceaselessly miserable existence. There are no images of hordes of people picking through trash, shack homes on the verge of collapse, or naked children dangerously perched on mounds of filth. Rather, I tease out the mundane, everyday moments that draw us together as people and offer a deeper understanding of our common humanity.”
i’m left with one question:
why try to limit your (our) perspective?
why not try to show the whole reality?
we do that a lot, don’t we? we choose an angle.
but often we don’t have to.
i like to see the darkness and the light, together.
the whole picture.
…
where are the photos of smiles and laughter?
wherever kids are they are playing, smiling and laughing.
..
definitely one of my favorite essays so far.
.
why not try to show the whole reality? we choose an angle.
but often we don’t have to.
————————————–
Thes subjects always show an angle, or are always seen from an angle, IMO. I am not sure we should tell him what to do, even as we miss some aspects, given his text (essay might be unfinished, and there is probably something to be said about texts introducing essays on BURN, as some become problematic, or have a problematic that distracts from the pictures).
Anyway, I think the voice/eye/intent/angle of the photographer must be strong and standing up high in such essays, because people and viewers have either a strong idea of what (and how it) should be seen, from poor corners of the world, or simply gobble it as another us here and them there. usually, a page turner.
Ok, what I am saying is that angles are not categories to be chosen(shot a smile, shoot the whole village from the hill, shoot the crying child in hospital ward, mix all up and serve….) beforehand. That is done every day by thousands of photographers, often dozens in the same spot.
Off for the week again. Feel like a migrant worker…..What a man must do, to feed his inner child! ;-)
just came back for my umpteenth look at this. That opening shot is just something else, and it is fully backed up by more. Fuck the words i just think the pictures in this essay are superb.
john