Zeitenspiegel photographer Christoph Püschner documents the daily lives of garbage collectors in India. For two weeks, Stuttgart-based photographer Christoph Püschner lived among the poorest of the poor from the Untouchable caste. His work is now on exhibit at the Willy Brandt House in Berlin.
On the outskirts of the city of Guntur, home to millions, live the waste pickers – people who search through household waste, electronic scrap, and hospital waste for plastic, aluminum, and other recyclable materials. The waste collectors belong to the „Untouchables,” a caste ostracized by the rest of Indian society. They live in squalid huts built from discarded election posters, cardboard scraps, and rags. Indian environmental expert Rupa Mukherjee calls them the „backbone of the recycling system in India.”
At the end of 2018, author Nicole Graaf and Zeitenspiegel photographer Christoph Püschner spent two weeks accompanying the garbage collectors. Commissioned by the aid organization Brot für die Welt, which supports the local organization Dalit Bahujan Resource Center in the city of Guntur to improve the living conditions of the garbage collectors, the reporters tell the story of the daily lives of the people living there.
The exhibition can be viewed from June 27 to August 30, 2020, in the gallery on the 2nd floor of the Willy-Brandt-Haus at Stresemannstraße 28 in 10963 Berlin.
Willy Brandt House Website: https://www.fkwbh.de/ausstellung/ueberleben-im-muell