Waste Land

In the film “Waste Land,” artist Vik Muniz decides to go back to his home country of Brazil to work on a project in which he photographs the pickers of the world’s largest landfill, Jardim Gramacho. His wife was concerned about him going to the landfill for 2 years because of the obvious health risks and she was also worried about the kind of people that work in a garbage dump. Vik assumed that the pickers at the landfill were drug addicts and people who were shunned from society, but when he got to Jardim Gramacho, he discovered the complete opposite. He learned that the pickers were regular people who were just trying to make ends meet like anyone else, and they each in fact have their own vibrant personalities. Many of the pickers were wary of Vik when they first met him, but after working with him and spending so much time getting to know each other, they built a strong connection with each other.

            Some of the pickers thought that art was useless and that there was no point to it. After working with Vik for so long on his art project, however, they realized that there is more to life than working in the landfill. Working on their photos that Vik took of them, they learned to be proud of who they are and what they do. They thought there was no point to art but their lives changed because of it.

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