2015 / Editorial / Photo Essay

Light Dream

  • Photographer
    Adrián Domínguez López

The increase of people without resources who are forced to live on the street is an endemic stamp in any capital of the modern world. The beauty of the night and the city lights contrast with poor people that nest in banks, in the parks or on the same floor. Offering an uncomfortable and unfamiliar picture, with hints of cinematic fiction nourished by the strangeness. This work is carried out in Madrid, capital of one of the countries hardest hit by poverty and social exclusion in the EU over the last years. Places that represent urban arteries on culture, business or popular folklore become temporary stays for loners who wander in the quiet of night. Social exclusion refers to a << process in which a person can not exercise any of their basic social rights as a citizen and / or lack of personal, social, or economic resources necessary to exercise their citizenship >>. Spain is estimated that over 11 million people (3 million homes) are affected by intense processes of social exclusion. The rate of risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE2013) is above 27% for residents in Spain, in the European Union only Bulgaria and Latvia have the highest inequality indicators. There are stories that accumulate difficult processes, either by the environment they happen to live or personal characteristics of each. They are stories of lives and suffering genuine spiral, that can lead to mental illness, addiction, isolation and neglect. They are among us but the reality of those excluded from society is one of the most unknown to most citizens and social ministries. This helps the great stigma they carry on be perpetuating, feeding the myths and prejudices that often we have about these people.