Seldom is there a chance to give voice to those who have come to be regarded as expendable in the services of some imagined greater good It suddenly becomes much harder to ignore someone’s circumstances when looking directly into the eyes of that individual so full of life and potential. Yet from afar this same individual is often regarded as little more than cheap manual labor so that a T-shirt, a mobile phone or fast food can cost considerably less.

People become a vehicle to higher profit or, worst of all, they’re reduced to flesh for sale.This lack of connection diminishes all of us. By watching this happen, and knowing better, but failing to defend victims, the consumer becomes complicit. But all that is really needed is a minimum of sacrifice and demand for fair wages (or wages at all in some cases), and humane working conditions. Changes on the supply side can begin a chain reaction of trickle down that can collectively bring real, positive change.

This abuse can longer not be ignored, and ignorance of such abuse should no longer be an excuse to perpetuate the status quo.

We are really one people, no different, north to south, east to west. The sooner one musters up enough real courage to gaze honestly into the eyes of an intelligent, gifted person who by fate, or bad luck, is in need of a hand, the sooner entire families’ lives can improve. Opportunities, considered a birthright in the developed world, can be extended across the gulf that divides consumer culture from the faceless masses whose sweat reinforces our sense of privilege and prosperity. These photographs are an invitation to think about our collective responsibility to each other globally.