By Nathalie Banaigs
Lalo Borja is a Colombian photographer. He currently resides in Whitstable and taught photography in Canterbury College for 18 years. “The series "Street Vendors, Cali, Colombia 1995" is the end result of repeatedly photographing these heterogeneous subjects. They have congregated for many years in a particular park in the south of the city of Cali. They include children, grandmothers, young men, old men and women, who have to work very hard in order to eke out a living by selling the most varied selection of elements. They sell individual
cigarettes, small match boxes, chewing gum, bread and water, anything that can bring a few cents will be sold.
I spent nearly three months, every Sunday afternoon between January and April of 1995, in order to have enough photographic material to create a reasonable collection of subjects to validate the project. The project demonstrates the vulnerability of people, young and old, in a country where social services and care for the elderly are nearly non-existing.
Some mothers drag their children all day long trying to make ends meet. Some young children go out in pairs, brothers and sisters, to walk long days under the sun as they try to sell whatever they have been provided with for their survival.”
More of his work can be viewed here.
He currently resides in Whitstable.
