Nigel Dickinson, Paris, France
Nigel Dickinson is a British documentary photographer & photojournalist with 35 years experience. His photography focuses on the environment, the human condition, marginalized communities, sustainable development, identity and culture. His work is widely published, including National Geographic, Stern, Figaro, Mare, Geo, New York Times, Sunday Times. Awards include 'Deforestation' UNEP bronze prize Rio Earth Summit 1992; 'Mad Cows UK' won a World Press award in the news 1997; 'Roma Gypsies' runner up in the 'Eugene Smith Award' 2000; 'Meat' on shortlist for European Publishers award 2006; 'Cambodia Railtrack' won feature award at UK Press Photographers Year 2008; 'Critical Mass' Solo Exhibition Awardee 2011. Selected exhibitions include 'Roma Beyond Borders' shown at the Venice Biennale 2011, 'Moving Walls Documentary Series 12' and Rivington Place London 2012; 'Smokey Mountain' shown at Photolucida & Denmark Fototriennale 2012, 'Images without borders' retrospective works shown at Kolga Tibilisi Photo 2012, 'Roma Beyond Borders' and Islamic Sharia in Kano Nigeria shown at Visa pour L'Image 2000 & 2003, 'Sara. Le pelerinage des gitans' shown at Rencontres d'Arles 2003, 'Deforestation' premiered at Fotofeis Scotland 1992, 'Demonstrate' shown at Camerawork London 1982.
Fast-food mobile vendor selling snacks and drinks to a child worker, at dusk, at the edge of Smokey Mountain
Smokey Mountain at Steung Mean Chey, is Phnom Penh's municipal rubbish dump. Many thousands work here, recycling the city's rubbish, dumped by garbage trucks every day and night. Several hundred workers are minors and some are very young children, who often work with friends or relatives for protection. The overpowering, acrid odour of grey smokey fumes blowing across the dump, gives this place gets its name. Smokey Mountain is notorious for disease, pollution and crime. It is an open air work and living zone. People do almost everything here; they buy food, eat, sleep, amidst the rubbish and fumes. They work 24 hours a day, with headlamps at night, which they have to rent for a quarter of their average gains. They collect plastic bags, hard plastic, metals, wood, cloth & paper, which then needs to be sorted and cleaned, weighed and sold, then carried away for recycling. A day's work typically brings less than a dollar per person, less $.25cents lamp rental. They just manage to survive, to work another day.
Publications
'Sara. Le pelerinage des gitans' Actes Sud 2003. Premiered at Rencontres d'Arles, France
'Hanging On By Your Fingernails' Spokesman Press 1987. Premiered at Lea Hall Colliery, Staffs UK
