Dignity of Workers

Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

There is a set of photographs taken by Sebastiao Salgado that explains the viewer both who Salgado is and why he covers the worker's plight throughout the world. The images are set in a gold mine in Brazil called Serra Pelada which is a vast pit where people toil daily to dig gold from the mud. The people dig the mud from the pit using the meanest of tools (pick, shovels) which they then put into wicker baskets. The baskets, weighing between "30 and 60 kilograms" (Stallabrass), or 65 to 130 pounds, are then carried up wooden ladders. The ladders are approximately 50 feet tall (and can be more), and the workers make as many as 60 trips per day with their baskets (Stallabrass). For each trip, the worker is paid the equivalent of 20 United States cents on...
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