When you are born in the “right ” side of the world, it can be difficult to imagine how many people still live in conditions which seem to belong to a bygone past. Yet, all the progress and development seem to happen at a very high cost. The one of all the people who are left behind, invisible pieces of a system that simply does not care enough. There are countries where the concept of human beings is still confused with human doings, and human lives only count when employed to keep the mechanism of production going. Potosí was once a rich town, the crown jewel of the Spanish Empire. Now, a ghost of its former self, is a good example of how the exploitation of manual work and the environment more often than not brings no benefit to the local communities, who are isolated from the very system they lose their lives to maintain. There is no silver left in Potosí, and the silver lining that veiled its history for centuries has now also vanished.
Photos and words by Marina Dego
About the author: Marina Dego – Born on the lake but marine by name and by nature, she spends half her life based in London, running from one side of the city to the other, travelling for work, in perpetual motion. One day she wakes up and drops everything, and jumps without a parachute, but with a great desire to change her perspective. For the moment, she sometimes wonders if she is still there, suspended in mid-air. From a career in the fashion world to an intensive course in literature and photography, she travels through South America and Europe trying to learn how to tell a story with images and words. So many different experiences, connected by the thread of curiosity and endless restlessness. She constantly wonders what she will do when she grows up, although she has been an adult for quite a while. She believes in human relationships, exchange and making connections. She teaches English, and also Italian. She writes, reads, photographs. She collaborates with those who can benefit from her skills, and those who can learn from them. She loves listening to stories and bringing them to life. She believes the world could be saved this way, one story at a time.
