Tariq Zaidi, Großbritannien

Ohne Parkett tanzen, über Müllberge zur Schule gehen, vom Maniküre-Studio träumen, zwischen Wellblechwänden lernen, in einer Kirche ohne Dach singen, die bedrückende Enge auslachen: Der britische Fotograf Tariq Zaidi ist kein „Arm-aber-glücklich“-Ideologe. Dennoch will er mit seinen Bildern aus dem größten Slum der haitianischen Hauptstadt Port-au-Prince dafür werben, sich die Kraft der Menschen bewusst zu machen, die unter solchen Bedingungen leben müssen.

80 000 sind es vermutlich, die in den Hütten am steilen Berghang von „Jalousie“ wohnen: ohne fließendes Wasser, ohne Müllabfuhr, nur mit gelegentlicher Stromversorgung. „Gemeinschaftssinn“ hat Zaidi gerade hier gefunden – und Kinder, die voller Hoffnung und Ehrgeiz sind.

Biografie: Tariq Zaidi, Großbritannien (Caters News Agency, Getty Images)

Tariq Zaidi is a freelance photographer based out of London, England. Zaidi’s photography focuses on inequality, endangered communities and social change. He aims to capture the spirit and dignity of people in connection with the environment that they inhabit.

Zaidi has worked in 18 countries across 4 continents, mainly in the developing world. His work has been shown in over 60 international exhibitions, and has been featured in over 700 publications since August 2015, including The Guardian, BBC News, CNN, National Geographic, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, El Pais, The LA Times and Smithsonian Magazine, among other respected international titles.

Zaidi was awarded the ‘Photographer of the Year’ prize in POYi75 2018 (Pictures of the Year International Competition) for his work from Congo, North Korea and Brazil. He is one of the winners of the PDN Photo Annual 2018 in Photojournalism/Documentary, and is the recipient of the Marty Forscher Fellowship Fund for outstanding achievements in humanistic photography, presented by Parsons Design School.

Zaidi’s current project is a visual anthology of dignity and community in some of the poorest regions of the world, entitled ‘Capturing the Human Spirit’. The first three instalments of the project were featured at Visa Pour L’image, International Festival of Journalism (Perpignan, France) in September 2018.