Third World America

The face of poverty in the U.S. is not necessarily the skeletally-thin one of deprivation common to developing countries. Instead, America faces the problem of obesity, often due to a poor and non-nutritous diet and lifestyle. Childrenís health is especially affected: diabetes is prevalent and many children are overweight. Numerous families across America are just a paycheck away from being on the edge, especially when it comes to healthcare issues.

Third World America documents the daily struggle of Americaís poor, those simply trying to make ends meet, often while raising a family. The exhibition includes black Mississippi Delta families living in the first town started after slavery was abolished; a single mother raising three children on a Wendyís restaurant minimum wage paycheck; 800 cars lined up for groceries at an Appalachian food bank; migrant workers in Texas striving to give their American-born children a better life; and reservation Navahos living without running water or electricity instilling a cultural sense of pride in their children at native powwows.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina opened Americaís eyes to the dilemma of our own poor. It gave pause to many who watched this unfolding to consider ìBut for the grace of God, go I.î

Third World America was initially funded by Marian Wright Edelman and the Childrenís Defense Fund.  

Alison Wright

San Francisco-based documentary photographer Alison Wright has spent twenty years photographing socially conscious issues around the world, and has given a voice to the worldís children, refugees, and society's poor. Her photography books, Faces of Hope: Children in a Changing World, The Spirit of Tibet: Portrait of a Culture in Exile, and A Simple Monk: Writings on His Holiness the Dalai Lama, document the traditional lifestyle of cultures and people worldwide and capture the connection of the universal human spirit.

Wright has been published in National Geographic, Natural History, Outside, Geo, Time, Forbes, Oprah, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Travelers Tales and dozens of other publications. She has been awarded the 2005 North American Travel Journalism Award, the 2002 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award and was the 1993 recipient of the Dorothea Lang Award in Documentary Photography for her photographs of child labor in Asia. She is a three time winner of the Society of American Travel Writers Bill Muster photo awards.

Wright has a MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in Photojournalism from Syracuse University. She is based in San Francisco.  

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