When asked to contribute to an exhibition about chocolate, photographer James Mollison decided to “explore the disparity between the producer and consumer.” Chocolate is always a luxury, of course (and is often deliberately marketed this way), and the product, at its finest, can be exceptionally delicious and exceptionally expensive.
Mollison went to Côte d’Ivoire, the country responsible for producing the largest proportion of cacao, to bring the contrast between the product and its producers to life. The men he photographed, he reports, earned less than $1 a day.
You can see them at his website.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 17
olsonam — June 28, 2012
One alternative to main-stream slave-harvested chocolate is Divine chocolate, which is a co-op. I usually find in the "organic" section of a grocery store even though it's not organic.
http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/default.aspx
Hanover — June 28, 2012
Boycott chocolate.
northierthanthou — June 29, 2012
Great project!
Lotuspetal7 — June 29, 2012
I'm annoyed by posts like this that cite foreign workers' wages in dollars without giving an idea of how much that buys in that country. There are many places in the world where people are getting along on less than a dollar a day. More information is needed to determine whether these could be 1) people who are living a frugal but decent life due to, for example, housing and food provided for them (but who still may not have, say, access to good healthcare), 2) people who are surviving but are unable to enjoy any luxuries whatsoever--for example, they have to eat the same cheapest-available foods most days of the year, or 3) people living in unimaginable squalor--unlikely if they have jobs.
Try traveling to countries where things cost a lot less and you will see that a dollar can mean such different things in different places. I had a friend in Vietnam who was making it fine on a salary of about $100 a month in the relatively expensive city of Hanoi. His rent was about $30, food at the local market cost almost nothing, and he had enough left over each month to save up for the occasional big purchase such as a motorcycle or laptop. I once met a local tour guide in Laos who told me that for a while he had taken a job teaching English to people in a village 3 days' walk from any roads. The salary was not good, he said--about $35 a month--but out there you didn't spend even that as there was really no cash economy.
The people in these pictures probably do need our awareness, but stating their wages in dollars essentially for shock value does nothing to give us a real picture of their lives.
I also don't like the way they are photographed dirty as if it's because they are poor...they look dirty because they are agricultural laborers...they probably went home and bathed after these pictures were taken.
Mary — June 29, 2012
My understanding is that children are used as slave labor here to tend the crops. Photos of the children would be an excellent addition to the exhibit.
Paul Harrison — June 30, 2012
Er. They look healthy, happy, confident, in control of their lives. Clothes could do with once through the washing machine. Farms contain dirt, I hear. What am I meant to be seeing here?
Dude's got an armadillo, pretty cool. They are nice photos.