Katz Pictures
01 January, 1993
A child scavenges at the Smokey Mountain garbage dump on the outskirts of Manila. The police refuse to go here because they cannot bear the stench, yet it is home to tens thousands of people, most of them from rural backgrounds. Though a quarter survive by scavenging, they form a tightly knit community full of hope, pride and resourcefulness. Stephen Dupont: 'I was in the Philippines to cover the elections for my newspaper. I had heard about Smokey Mountain, a massive garbage dump where tens of thousands of people made a living scavenging for recyclable goods, building materials and even food. I could smell the place miles before I arrived there, and then saw an apocalyptic vision, like something from Dante’s Inferno: a mountain of smoking and burning waste, with toxic fumes filling your every breath. I spent days shooting there, while endless convoys of trucks snaked up and dumped the city’s garbage.' (World Press Photo retrospective Children's Jury exhibition, 2003)
Stephen Dupont
Stephen Dupont (Sydney, Australia, 1967) is a self-taught photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. He is based in Australia and regularly works on assignments for Time, Newswee...
