Kike Arnal

In the Shadow of Power: Poverty in Washington D.C.

Artist Statement:

In 2002, while on assignment in Washington DC, I was stunned by the poverty. It contrasted the stereotypical view of the city's monuments and corridors of power.  At some locations in Southeast DC, I was even reminded of the marginal barrios back in my home country of Venezuela and in other countries throughout South America. As a photographer, I could not stop wondering why this obvious social despair was little documented by the media.

I began researching the demographic statistics of the city, I was shocked to find that Washington, DC has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, infant mortality, and HIV infection in the country. Not to mention that 20% of its population (and over 30 % of its children) live in poverty and male African Americans have the shortest life span in the country.

With a population of roughly 570,000 people, the District of Columbia is, by world standards, a small city. Its manageable size would seem to indicate that Washington could fulfill expectations naturally associated with a city of its global stature, to take care of its people. The disparity that I saw compelled me to spend the next few years documenting Washington DC in order to draw attention to the realities of the city.

KIKE ARNAL is a still photographer and videographer. Originally from Venezuela, and now based in New York City, Kike has covered stories in the Americas, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. His photographs have been featured in The New York Times, Life, and Mother Jones, among other leading publications. He has directed and produced video documentaries, including Yanomami Malaria, a film for Discovery Channel about a malaria epidemic among scattered populations of indigenous people in a remote area of the northern Amazon. Kike has just started working on a video documentary about individual end-of-life transformations at a remarkable hospice in Washington, DC.

To see some of Kike’s work, visit his web site: www.kikearnal.com

The photography series is curated by James Price and Anna Van Lenten

Previous exhibitions at The Half King