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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Photography Culture

Benin: Les Enfants Concasseurs Showcases Child Labor

Chris Gampat
No Comments
12/22/2015
3 Mins read

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All images by Nicola Maiani. Used with permission.

“I’m not interested in aesthetically beautiful images,” says photographer Nicola Maiani about his project called “Benin: Les Enfants Concasseurs.” Nicola travelled to Benin and witnessed very young children being used for child labor–a global problem that is more common than we think. He’s been taking photos for 10 years with an interest in photojournalism.

“…in 2015, more than 150 MILLION children forced to hard works which endanger their physical and mental health and excludes them a normal childhood and education.” Nicola says in his email to the Phoblographer talking about the project.

Phoblographer: Talk to us about how you got into photography.

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Nicola: I started with photography about 10 years ago, just for fun. Then I discovered that I could do something more: try to tell a story by shooting what is around me. Photography, for me, means telling and telling myself a story.

Phoblographer: What got you into doing documentary projects?

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Nicola: It was a natural path, almost a requirement. Trying to give a voice to those who don’t have one through the way I see it. It’s what I do best and what makes me who I am.

Phoblographer: So what made you want to do a project like this to begin with? Child labor is a big issue all over the world.

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Nicola: I became aware of this situation through an humanity foundation that, in the Benin area, helps children by removing them from stone quarries and sending them to school. Child labor is a Global plague, but actually talking about small reality as that of “Concasseurs” in the Benin region, that we can try to do something.

Phoblographer: When you went to photograph the children at work, how did you gain the trust of the people to go ahead and take their pictures?

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Nicola: With simplicity. Playing and interacting in the simplest way possible. Younger children were frightened by me and my camera, but slowly, talking with adults and by reviewing their shots, then I was able to catch them in a natural way, because they trusted me and they knew I was there only for a little while.

Phoblographer: So what are you doing with the project to try to get the word out about child labor?

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Nicola: This project is brand new, I came back from Benin last November and I’m trying to publicize it as much as possible, both to raise awareness of this reality that to try any publishers interested to make a book, and be able to donate part of the incomes to help those childrens

Phoblographer: When you went around taking these pictures, did you feel any sort of moral and social responsibility to help them with your photography?

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Nicola: Honestly, no.

When I’m on the road I do not think of anything but shooting and try to impress what I “feel” on the sensor. But at the time I try to remain as faithful as possible.

Phoblographer: Why the creative decision to make the images in black and white?

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Nicola: It isn’t a creative decision, the colors were too vivid, beautiful. I’m not interested in aesthetically beautiful images, I try to give them a message and, in this case, the colors would distract too much from what I wanted to communicate.

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Benin Child Labor Nicola Maiani Photography
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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