ThirstyFish

A Turkish friend of mine was upset that many of my photographs, like this, or this, or this, were not representative of the modern country Turkey is becoming. My answer is simple; I shoot what I see, and I have no ambition to try to post a "representative sample". I noticed this young girl at a remote corner of the Kemeralti Historical Market. I'm not sure, but she might be just one of the over 600,000 Syrian War refugees that fled to Turkey.

About 50% of the world population lives on less than $2.50 a day, and about 80% lives on less than $10 a day! But poverty has two measures; The first is absolute poverty, defined as the the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education. The second is relative poverty, defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live.

In the United States, the median personal income for individuals over the age of 18 was $24,062 in 2005, which translates into almost $66 a day. But that number is deceptive. Firstly, it does not represent disposable income. Secondly, the cost of living in a given country, city or town varies drastically. In India where 69% of the population lives on less than $2 a day, $24,000 can go a long way. In the U.S., it means a struggle.