American Photographer Johnny Miller became interested in social inequality and segregation when he moved to Cape Town, in South Africa. The country has barely recovered from apartheid, which although officially ended a quarter of century ago, traces of the racial segregation in the form of roads, rivers, “buffer zones” of empty land, and other barriers still exist separating the rich from the poor, the blacks from the whites.
This gave birth to the photo series Unequal Scenes (previously on Amusing Planet) that portrays dramatic scenes of inequality around the world from a drone’s perspective.
The sprawling Dharavi Slums of Mumbai right next to skyscrapers.
“Discrepancies in how people live are sometimes hard to see from the ground,” says Miller. “The beauty of being able to fly is to see things from a new perspective - to see things as they really are. Looking straight down from a height of several hundred meters, incredible scenes of inequality emerge.”
“My desire with this project is to portray the most Unequal Scenes around the world as objectively as possible. By providing a new perspective on an old problem, I hope to provoke a dialogue which can begin to address the issues of inequality and disenfranchisement in a constructive and peaceful way,” wrote Miller on his website.
Dharavi Slum in Mumbai adjacent to the Mahim Nature Park.
The area surrounding the Bandra Kurla complex is a mixture of extreme wealth and extreme poverty, including the consulate generals of several countries, corporate headquarters, and the National Stock Exchange.
The city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
This is Zanzibar island. On the far northern tip of the island lies the village of Nungwi, a tourist destination with crystal clear water and white sand beaches, but if you care to dig a little deeper, you’ll find water scarcity and poverty.
Upwardly mobile Kenyans live in planned, gated communities. Sometimes these abut the poorest of slum communities, this one in Loresho.
A planned road will bisect Kibera slum in Nairobi, displacing thousands of people.
Extreme wealth inequality in Mexico City's Santa Fe neighborhood
A gated housing estate in the Ixtapalapa neighborhood, Mexico, sits next to a classic concrete low-income area.
A housing estate sits carved our of the barrio in Santa Fe, as the skyscrapers behind represent the great wealth of the area.
The Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course in Durban next to a community of tiny tin shacks.
