Laughter

Steung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump is located in southern Phnom

Penh, in a district of the city of the same name, Steung Meanchey.

 

Most of the rubbish pickers at Steung Meanchey are either from Phnom

Penh or came to Phnom Penh looking for work and ended up in the

slums. Many of the approximately 600 children have parents or

relatives who also work on the dump and look after them. Some of

them go to school, but most do not - at least not on a regular

basis -, and it is safe to say that virtually none of them ever

completes a primary school education. The school fees are too high

and their families need them to collect rubbish to contribute to the

family income. Adults earn, on average, 4000 to 5000 riels (US$1.00

to $1.25) a day; children earn on average about half that amount. A

whole family working together can actually earn more money than they

could in the rural village from which they originally came

i love this shot!

Excellent shot! a smile that makes the whole picture, an amazing contrast w/ what's going on arround, marvelous in terms of composition (very well used diagonal lines), the perfect light. Bravo!

F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C.

Great image!

very impressive !

oh, bravo for this documentary photograph. excellent. bravo!

Biliana

7/7

wow.. this is an masterpiece !!!!!! bacground so well and laugh so nature.. phoro is sharp too..

 

great great !!!!!!!!!!

 

Longtang John Lin

Excellent documentary shot.

unfortunately "we" need these low income people to keep on with our luxury lives (and this includes keeping as low as possible prices of, let's say, cameras - as those we use or as those we dream of buying). Who of us could, after living the way we do, laugh in the boys place? So, let's keep them ignorant, that way they'll keep on laughing, and so will us be "amazed" by their laugh...

By the way, this is a(nother) great image!!

In a TV documentary i recently saw about Sebastiao Salgado's work on migrations he, or the interviewer, commented about the beautiful, amazing, skies on all of his shots and how some people seemed to only notice that beauty, forgetting about the subject. Here too, the boys pure laughter cannot "erase" the background.

a simply wonderful photo that clearly tell quite the story. the boys expression is worthy of a photo all to itself. thanks for sharing such a moving image.

is an excellent image. Nearly perfect in terms of composition. Perfect in terms of technique. Very good subject and location. Futher, I would claim that laughter is something that no one can do without. While one thing that comes to mind is the obvious contrast between the laughter and the surroundings and hence the possible circumstances that the person finds himself in. Who is to say that he is not perfectly content and happy where he is and in what he does for a living. Maybe every day of his life is filled with laughter. Thought provoking..

Wonderful photo. Sometimes it seems to me that people living in such condition can be happier than rich. At least they are able to laugh.

This is by all criteria an amazing photograph,worth far more than a thousand words.

wonderful!

What a world:)!

BRAVO!

Great!

Reminds me of how society portrays wealth with happiness when in reality it does the exact opposite, leaving the rich unfulfilled and always wanting more. Happiness is not found in wealth.

Gargabe dumps, nothing beats their odor, except for that of pig farms and carcasses and overflowing toilets. You have to be tough to live here. I have come back to this image a couple of times. I like the composition and simply, the choice of the photographer to "do it" here. It could have been posted at a higher resolution though, and then would come off even better.

Very impressive image.Remands me Koudelca's gibsys.But them B&W.

thanks guys for all the comments. Aykan: thanks for B&W version, looks good.

very good photojournalism shot.

this is a wonderful capture! detail in subject and setting... great color and GREAT composition.

favulous! wow!