'The Places We Live': Four Monumental Slums Typify 'Home' for More Than One Billion People

‘The Places We Live’: Four Monumental Slums Typify ‘Home’ for More Than One Billion People

In 2008, for the first time in human history, more people lived in cities than in rural areas. One-third of these urban dwellers—more than one billion people—resided in slums. That number is expected to rise substantially: the United Nations forecasts that the number of slum dwellers will double to two billion people within the next 25 years. Poverty is urbanizing at breakneck speed, and there are few overarching plans to address how cities can accommodate this rapid influx of humans.

Photographers JR & Jonas Bendiksen | Artistry in Kibera, Kenya

JR ‘s “Women Are Heroes” Kibera, Kenya

NOWNESS, Louis Vuitton’s culture website Tweeted JR’s “Women Are Heroes” project just now, featuring photos from Kibera, located in Nairobi, Kenya.

We’ve written extensively about this inspiring, global project and only recently connected it to Jonas Bendiksen’s widely-read stories at Anne of Carversville: ‘The Places We Live”: Four Monumental Slums Typify ‘Home’ for More than One Billion People.

Bendiksen photographs Kibera from another angle than JR.

We found ourselves in Kibera for another reason, wanting to learn more about the so-called “flying toilets” of Kibera. If you require translation, a “flying toilet” consists of human waste put into a plastic bag and tossed into the air, landing on roads or in gutters.

The photographs of both JR and Jonas Bendiksen bring the “flying toilets” of Kibera into sharp focus.