23°, Far From Paradise
Organization: Food For The Poor, Inc.
Photographer: Benjamin Rusnak
Organization: Food For The Poor, Inc.
Exhibit Title: 23°, Far From Paradise
Location: Haiti
23°
Far From Paradise
23° of latitude separate the Equator from the Northern tropic. These latitudes are home to beaches, palms, vacation resorts, idyllic paradise -- and poverty.
This is where the sun bares countless dark and desperate lives. This is where the unfortunate location of birth often condemns people to a life of struggle in an unforgiving land, beset with drought and flood, famine and tempest.
Conversely, this is where hope and resilience coexist with tribulation. For the poor, there is a duality to life. In each person, each moment holds joy and pain, a mourning for what is lost and a yearning for what may be. These lands represent a dream holiday to tourists, but they are only an elusive fantasy to millions of residents still hoping for the reality of paradise to become theirs.
23°
Far From Paradise
Terrorism is based on radical hatred and while we may never be rid of a small number of radicals, the growth of terror networks is based on poverty and the idea that desperate people are ripe recruits for terrorists who give them a way out of their suffering and an enemy to blame. Ending the worst kind of poverty – the kind that kills – reduces the numbers of those willing to follow messages of hate. When given the opportunity to lead a normal life with access to food, water and shelter, most people will choose family and prosperity over violence.
The legacy of 9/11 has slowly brought this understanding into our consciousness and I believe we are all more aware of poverty, especially in the developing world. When Americans travel to the tropics for vacation, we are confronted by the very real poverty just off our shores.
Novelist Jeffery Deaver writes, “Always in a post 9/11 world, looking up.” But perhaps we have begun to cast our eyes down as well.
23° of latitude separate the Equator from the Northern tropic. These latitudes are home to beaches, palms, vacation resorts, idyllic paradise -- and poverty.
This is where the sun bares countless dark and desperate lives. This is where the unfortunate location of birth often condemns people to a life of struggle in an unforgiving land, beset with drought and flood, famine and tempest.
Conversely, this is where hope and resilience coexist with tribulation. For the poor, there is a duality to life. In each person, each moment holds joy and pain, a mourning for what is lost and a yearning for what may be. These lands represent a dream holiday to tourists, but they are only an elusive fantasy to millions of residents still hoping for the reality of paradise to become theirs.
I have documented the lives of the poor in the Caribbean and Latin America for a decade. The people I meet struggle, strive, hope, dream, live and die in those 23°. While this region is only one part of the globe, the lives of turmoil and legacies of hope within it are emblematic of people around the world who suffer at the same latitudes. Their lives are separated by a chasm of degrees, in contrast to those living in developed nations to the north and south.
This work in progress seeks to illuminate this intersection of geographic lines with circumstance of birth and how the irony of being poor in paradise creates strength, resilience and a duality of spirit. I believe the broad view of the panoramic format, combined with an often intimate perspective, creates a novel way to explore the relationship between the land and those who must scrape together an existence from it.
Food For The Poor, Inc
Benjamin Rusnak
7571 E. Sierra Terrace
Boca Raton, Fl 33433
561-213-1517
ben@benjaminrusnak.com
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