The Places We Live

The Places We Live (Aperture, 2008)
Photographs © Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum Photos

My friend Scott sent this link to me, www.theplaceswelive.com It's an amazing interactive website, kind of like a choose your own destination online documentary. Here's some info I took from the Aperture Foundation website:

The Places We Live
Photographs by Jonas Bendiksen

Exhibition

Exhibition on View:
Friday, June 6, 2008—Saturday, January 31, 2009

Nobel Peace Center
Radhusplassen
Oslo, Norway

In 2008 more people live in cities than in rural areas. One third of city dwellers, more than a billion people, live in slums. In The Places We Live, Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen presents sixteen homes in four different slum areas: Caracas, Venezuela; Mumbai, India; Nairobi, Kenya; and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The exhibition, a unique multimedia installation, challenges viewers to reflect on what it means to live in a city in the 21st century. Bendiksen has visited four slums selected according to geographical spread and variation. He depicts various aspects of slum life, from worst-offs to slum chiefs.

The accompanying book, published by Aperture, includes twenty double-gatefold images, each representing an individual home and its denizen’s story. Through its innovative design and experiential approach, The Places We Live brings the modern-day Dickensian reality of these individuals into sharp focus.

A member of Magnum Photos, Jonas Beniksen (born in Tønsberg, Norway, 1977) has received numerous awards, including the 2003 Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, and first prize in the Pictures of the Year International Awards. His photographs have appeared in National Geographic, GEO, Newsweek, and the Sunday Times Magazine, among other publications. His bestselling first book, Satellites: Photographs from the Fringes of the Former Soviet Union, was published in 2006 by Aperture. In 2007, the Paris Review received a National Magazine Award for Bendiksen’s project The Places We Live. He is the most recent winner of the National Geographic Photography Grant, and is the first Norwegian photographer to become a member of MAGNUM Photos.

Introduction text © Philip Gourevitch

The photographs are amazing & the information is worth engaging. Let me know what you think!