A Bolivian household May 23, 2011
Bolivia has long been one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America, with an average annual income in rural areas of just US $150. Bolivia also has the largest proportion of indigenous people, comprising about two-thirds of the total population. According to Bolivian government-supplied statistics, the percentage of people with access to safe water is only 68%.
The statistics never paint a pretty picture and sometimes it’s hard to see progress from the hard work of the local governments, NGO’s and international NGO’s like the ones we often work with. But it’s the job of the photographer/filmmaker to see the opportunities when they present themselves. This was one of those cases. We were working in a small remote village, which is often the case, and it was getting late in the day. We decided to walk up a faint dirt road to a household nestled up against the cliffs that reminded me of the desert Southwest in the US. When we arrived a woman with the most amazing smile was drying grain she had recently harvested. With the light slipping behind the ridge we quickly began shooting as she filled the sack with the days’ work.