The Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT) and The Other Hundred are currently hosting a photography exhibition featuring one hundred photo stories from The Other Hundred Entrepreneurs, an original not-for-profit photo book, the second in an annual series.
The unique project introduces readers to the people, issues, ideas, places and cultures often ignored by major media publications. Selected from 11,000 images shot in 158 countries and submitted by nearly 1,500 photographers, The Other Hundred celebrates those who will never find themselves on the world’s rich lists or celebrity websites.
GIFT is an is an independent not-for-profit Hong Kong-based think tank. See part 1 here.
India: Avid Kumar runs a four-person business painting the exteriors of high-rise towers in Kolkata, the capital of India’s West Bengal state. Painting a building typically earns him around 10,000 rupees (US$160), far more than he could earn by taking on many smaller projects.
Peru: Mabilón Jiménez Quispe survives in one of Lima’s poorest areas thanks to his handicraft, making retablos, a folk art derived from traditional Catholic church art. The floor of his workshop, on the roof of his family’s house in the Juan de Lurigancho neighbourhood of the Peruvian capital, is cluttered with small wooden retablo boxes, some unpainted, others decorated with colourful flowers.
Papua New Guinea: On Nusa Island, about five minutes by boat from Kavieng, New Ireland, in far northern Papua New Guinea, this father, his son, aged about 10, and his daughter, around 15, make bread for their village of about 200 people. All born in the village, every day, they get up at half-past two in the morning and start baking bread and other items. Their oven is home-made, and the hut which houses it soon becomes smoky.
Philippines: Jeff Matawaran, 48, set up his balut-processing business in 2007, beginning with two workers and a single incubator. Today, his business in Jala-jala, a town 75 kilometres south-east of Manila in Rizal province, serves shops and restaurants in nearby towns and cities.
Uruguay: Laura Carrasco, 27, works part-time as an illustrator, drawing posters for events, bands, dancers, and artists, to help pay her way through university in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. A student of the visual arts at the Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay’s only public university, and the country’s oldest and largest tertiary institution, she cannot recall a time when she wasn’t drawing.
Netherlands: Schorem is an old-school, men-only barbershop in Rotterdam, specialising in traditional haircuts and hot-towel razor shaves. Most of its 15 staff are tattooed, and each has his own slick hairstyle, beard and mustache. Their shop has no appointments system and offers just a limited range of traditional cuts – 22 in total. A haircut takes between 30 minutes and 45 minutes; a shave around 20 minutes. The only tools its staff use are scissors, thinning scissors, clippers and straight razors.
Kenya: Nairobi’s mtumba – Swahili for “second-hand” – are troves of buried treasure. Open-air markets packed with hundreds of make-shift stalls, they sell every conceivable kind of good – from pots and pans to food and bedding, and, for those willing to spend the time looking, designer brands, antique accessories and high-end fabrics.
Poland: With more than one million companies run by women – more than one-third of the country’s total – Poland is one of Europe’s leading centres of female entrepreneurship. Many of these businesses were set up during the years of Poland’s economic transformation after the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. The closure of many large state-owned businesses left many people with no other option than becoming self-employed – a trend which has been maintained since.
The Hong Kong event is running until this weekend at the ArtisTree, 1/f Cornwall House, Tai Koo Place. Admission is free.
The exhibition features all one hundred photos and stories from the book. The hundred stories and images span the globe and aim to provide a counterpoint to mainstream narrative of entrepreneurship.
