The stark contrast between the haves and the have-nots around the world: Powerful images reveal how inequality affects everybody from Amazon tribes to Chinese slum workers

  • Photo series from all over the world highlights issues such as inequality, climate change and poverty 
  • Collection showcases lives around the globe, from Brazilian tribes to Indian workers and Palestinian youths
  • Snaps taken by award-winning photographers in their home countries to show what equality means to them  

By Sara Malm for MailOnline

Published: 15:51 EST, 23 September 2015 | Updated: 21:56 EST, 23 September 2015

These poignant images show ten photographers' view of how the reality of the most urgent issues of our time: poverty, inequality and climate change, effects the people of their home nations. 

As part of a project by action/2015, a coalition of over 2020 organisations around the world, award-winning photographers from around the globe have shared pictures from their home countries to provide a unique perspective of what equality means to them.

The images depict stark contrasts in the everyday lives of ordinary people - from the Awá tribe in Brazil, to slum clearances in Lagos, workers in rural India and China's mushrooming cities, and the lives of teenagers in Pakistan and England. 

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One side: Portrait of two workers, a child and an old man, at one of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee sites in Madhya Pradesh, India. Children and old people work at many of these work-sites only because the socio-economic conditions here are such that everyone in the family needs to pitch in to the household earnings in order to survive

One side: Portrait of two workers, a child and an old man, at one of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee sites in Madhya Pradesh, India. Children and old people work at many of these work-sites only because the socio-economic conditions here are such that everyone in the family needs to pitch in to the household earnings in order to survive

Beyond the conflict: Teenage girls in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, try on dresses for an upcoming school dance

Beyond the conflict: Teenage girls in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, try on dresses for an upcoming school dance

Priorities: A group of teenage girls have turned from the sublime view at Wast Water, in Wasdale, Cumbria's Lake District, to gather around the screen of a mobile phone

Priorities: A group of teenage girls have turned from the sublime view at Wast Water, in Wasdale, Cumbria's Lake District, to gather around the screen of a mobile phone

Leap of faith: A worker does an impromptu pole-vault to leap across a puddle while working on electric cabling on the fringes of an old 'urban village' in in Guangzhou, China's southern metropolis, which has now become surrounded by new skyscrapers

Leap of faith: A worker does an impromptu pole-vault to leap across a puddle while working on electric cabling on the fringes of an old 'urban village' in in Guangzhou, China's southern metropolis, which has now become surrounded by new skyscrapers

A child from the Awá tribe - a nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe of the north-eastern Brazilian Amazon, reveal the devastating consequences of deforestation and shed light on the lives of the Awá, who have become knows as ‘Earth’s most threatened tribe’. The Awá depend on the forest for their food and survival, yet over past decades their land has invaded and more than 30% of their territory has been deforested, despite being demarcated by the Brazilian government. Various official groups are now fighting to stop the loggers whose activities, if left unchallenged, could result in genocide. The Awá are a nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe of the north-eastern Brazilian Amazon. They number around 450 people, of whom approximately 100 are uncontacted (split in three different groups). They depend on their forest for their food and survival. They hunt animals such as monkeys, armadillo, peccary and coati, and they collect fruit and honey. They use forest materials to construct their homes. The Awá’s land has been officially demarcated for them by the Brazilian government, but over past decades it has been brutally invaded and more than 30% of one Awá territory has already been deforested. Illegal loggers on Awá land are making it increasingly difficult for the Awá to find game in the forest. The Awá sometimes refrain from hunting, fearing violent attacks at the hands of the loggers. The loggers are “closing in” on their communities, operating as little as 3 km away and their families are going hungry. Ranchers and settlers have also encroached on the Indians’ territories. The uncontacted Awá are particularly vulnerable as they have no resistance to outside diseases. Contact with the invaders could kill them. Brazilian experts have said the Awá face ‘genocide’ and ‘extinction’. The devastation of the Awá’s land began after vast deposits of iron ore were discovered in the area in the 1970s, and the Brazilian government constructed a railway and road system, which also cut through the Awá land, to transport the iron ore from the Great Carajás mine to the coast. Thousands of invaders poured in to the area and many Awá families were brutally massacred.

A child from the Awá tribe - a nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe of around 450 people of the north-eastern Brazilian Amazon, who have become knows as 'Earth's most threatened tribe' after illegal loggers, right, have deforested more than 30 per cent of their territory despite being demarcated by the Brazilian government. Illegal loggers on Awá land are making it increasingly difficult for the Awá to find game in the forest. The Awá sometimes refrain from hunting, fearing violent attacks at the hands of the loggers. The loggers are 'closing in' on their communities, operating as little as 3 km away and their families are going hungry. Experts say the Awá face 'genocide' and 'extinction'.

'Equality is something that is innate, said Tanya Habjouqa, a photographer based in the Occupied Palestinian Territories who has chosen images taken in Gaza and Ramallah. 

'You see it in every child that you meet, whether it's a child in Darfur or in Iraq, a child in poverty, in a refugee camp, or in the city in New York.

'You see it within them; a curiosity, a hunger to live and be, and despite that, it is something that on the ground is not a reality… I have seen this desire to enjoy life, to give a better sense of possibility and future for their children. It runs the span of any culture, any religion.' 

The series offers a unique and provocative perspective on the meaning and future of equality in a world of stark contrasts between the haves and the have-nots.   

Borrowed workforce: Two immigrant Indonesian plantation workers at a palm oil estate in Sungai Pelek, Malaysia

Borrowed workforce: Two immigrant Indonesian plantation workers at a palm oil estate in Sungai Pelek, Malaysia

Broken training ground: The Gaza Parkour team practices in a cemetery on the outskirts of their refugee camp in Khan Younis, Gaza. The walls show damage from past Israeli incursions

Broken training ground: The Gaza Parkour team practices in a cemetery on the outskirts of their refugee camp in Khan Younis, Gaza. The walls show damage from past Israeli incursions

Racing for life: Mona Ennab, a so-called 'Speed Sister' from Ramallah on the West Bank trains with colleague Noor Daoud at the Qalandia check point during a quiet lull during iftar in Ramadan. Open spaces for practicing racing and drifting are limited in the West Bank.

Racing for life: Mona Ennab, a so-called 'Speed Sister' from Ramallah on the West Bank trains with colleague Noor Daoud at the Qalandia check point during a quiet lull during iftar in Ramadan. Open spaces for practicing racing and drifting are limited in the West Bank.

Makeshift wooden structures seen at night at the Okobaba slum at the Lagos Lagoon waterfront, where residents awaits eviction with anguish as the area has been marked for demolition by the state government

Makeshift wooden structures seen at night at the Okobaba slum at the Lagos Lagoon waterfront, where residents awaits eviction with anguish as the area has been marked for demolition by the state government

Not so mega: People at an open street market in Lagos Nigeria, one of the fastest growing cities in the world, but one that lacks the basic amenities that make a mega city

Not so mega: People at an open street market in Lagos Nigeria, one of the fastest growing cities in the world, but one that lacks the basic amenities that make a mega city

Speaking about his home country South Africa, photographer Mikhael Subotzky said: 'In a country that has been institutionally unequal for so long, particularly along racial lines, we are rightly very sensitive to the many forms of inequality that still exist. 

'For that reason, the sight of a black doctor treating the eye problems of a white patient is just as poignant as the sight of school children, who were born after democracy, visiting and learning about the symbol of Apartheid oppression, Robben Island.'

'We can often feel numb by the sheer scale of human suffering in crises,' British snapper Simon Roberts adds.

'However, despite the deluge of news images we see on a daily basis, a single photograph can still concentrate our minds, taking the larger overwhelming story and bringing it into sharper focus. 

'In some cases the photograph may even stir individuals and policy makers into some form of action.'

Dying to breathe: Former gold miner He Quangui is slowing dying of silicosis - a irreversible but preventable disease he contracted from years of working in small, unregulated gold mines in the Henan province, central China. In this illness, a type of pneumoconiosis - China's most prevalent occupational disease afflicting millions - silica dust sucked into the lungs during years of blasting rock causes the miner's lungs to harden and eventually fail. Most of the growing number of victims in China today are migrant workers like Mr He, with no insurance, good healthcare or legal recourse. They typically die in their 30s

Dying to breathe: Former gold miner He Quangui is slowing dying of silicosis - a irreversible but preventable disease he contracted from years of working in small, unregulated gold mines in the Henan province, central China. In this illness, a type of pneumoconiosis - China's most prevalent occupational disease afflicting millions - silica dust sucked into the lungs during years of blasting rock causes the miner's lungs to harden and eventually fail. Most of the growing number of victims in China today are migrant workers like Mr He, with no insurance, good healthcare or legal recourse. They typically die in their 30s

New world: At the end of a work day in the heart of Beijing's Central Business District, a woman scales the fence at a bus station with buses headed for Yanjiao, a satellite town in neighbouring Hebei province where hundreds of thousands of Beijing's workers live and commute to and from daily as they cannot afford to live in the city. The bus station sees all sorts of queue-cutting, fights by commuters desperate to get a seat on the crowded buses or simply to get home earlier

New world: At the end of a work day in the heart of Beijing's Central Business District, a woman scales the fence at a bus station with buses headed for Yanjiao, a satellite town in neighbouring Hebei province where hundreds of thousands of Beijing's workers live and commute to and from daily as they cannot afford to live in the city. The bus station sees all sorts of queue-cutting, fights by commuters desperate to get a seat on the crowded buses or simply to get home earlier

Broken city: A transgender woman, a group of people highly discriminated against in Malaysia, sits on an empty plot between two abandoned pre-WWII buildings on what was once Port Klang, Malaysia's busy main street. While city has now become Malaysia's largest port and the twelfth busiest container port in the world, the town itself is full of abandoned, burnt-out and dilapidated pre-war buildings

Broken city: A transgender woman, a group of people highly discriminated against in Malaysia, sits on an empty plot between two abandoned pre-WWII buildings on what was once Port Klang, Malaysia's busy main street. While city has now become Malaysia's largest port and the twelfth busiest container port in the world, the town itself is full of abandoned, burnt-out and dilapidated pre-war buildings

Pro and anti: Activists for and against the Russian political punk band Pussy Riot hold opposing rallies outside the courthouse in Moscow in 2012, where three Pussy Riot members were on trial for offending Russian Orthodox believers with a piece of anti-regime performance art

Pro and anti: Activists for and against the Russian political punk band Pussy Riot hold opposing rallies outside the courthouse in Moscow in 2012, where three Pussy Riot members were on trial for offending Russian Orthodox believers with a piece of anti-regime performance art

Protest of love: A young man named Harry Ben'Ka  stages a kiss-in in Moscow, Russia, in October 2013 to fight for gay rights

Protest of love: A young man named Harry Ben'Ka  stages a kiss-in in Moscow, Russia, in October 2013 to fight for gay rights

Worker's rights: The headquarters of Visual Impressions, a wholesale T-shirt embroidery and impressions business in Milwuakee, Wisconsin, right is Teresa, an embroiderer, who has been working at the factory for six years

Worker's rights: The headquarters of Visual Impressions, a wholesale T-shirt embroidery and impressions business in Milwuakee, Wisconsin, right is Teresa, an embroiderer, who has been working at the factory for six years

Behind the scenes: The headquarters of GenCo, a business that specializes in disposal of recalled pharmaceutical products, also in Wisconsin, right is Aneeza, a research assistant from Pakistan, has worked at GenCo for one year

Behind the scenes: The headquarters of GenCo, a business that specializes in disposal of recalled pharmaceutical products, also in Wisconsin, right is Aneeza, a research assistant from Pakistan, has worked at GenCo for one year

Out and in: The headquarters of Brady Corporation, a company that manufactures identification and security systems, right is Dionna, a dye cutter, has worked at Brady for five months. These three sets of images reflect on the stark contradiction between the huge anonymous corporate boxes and the workers inside who keep business moving, underlining the inequality faced by many factory workers in the US, and highlighting the need to fight for employment rights and fair wages globally

Out and in: The headquarters of Brady Corporation, a company that manufactures identification and security systems, right is Dionna, a dye cutter, has worked at Brady for five months. These three sets of images reflect on the stark contradiction between the huge anonymous corporate boxes and the workers inside who keep business moving, underlining the inequality faced by many factory workers in the US, and highlighting the need to fight for employment rights and fair wages globally

Rural work: People from the nearby village in Pati, Madhya Pradesh, India cutting rocks to widen the local roads as a part of the government initiated Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for basic minimum wages of a little over £2

Rural work: People from the nearby village in Pati, Madhya Pradesh, India cutting rocks to widen the local roads as a part of the government initiated Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for basic minimum wages of a little over £2

Remembering the past: South African school children, born post-apartheid, visiting and learning about the symbol of Apartheid oppression, Robben Island in 2014

Remembering the past: South African school children, born post-apartheid, visiting and learning about the symbol of Apartheid oppression, Robben Island in 2014

New world: A black female doctor at an eye centre examines a white female patient in Queenstown, South Africa's Eastern Cape, somethich which would have been unthinkable in the days of Apartheid

New world: A black female doctor at an eye centre examines a white female patient in Queenstown, South Africa's Eastern Cape, somethich which would have been unthinkable in the days of Apartheid

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