Inequality

Whether it is politics, social media, economics, or biology, we are learning more and more about how the actions and decisions of an individual affect the lives of others. At the same time, the mechanics of our everyday interactions and decision-making processes seem to be disconnected with these revelations.

Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkeley, is utilizing information from the fields of psychology, political science and sociology to study the relationship between power and social awareness. What his work reveals is that people who enjoy higher social power — through wealth, status or rank — pay less attention and have fewer face-to-face encounters with those who hold less power. Keltner’s work demonstrates that this lessens empathy, understanding and ultimately results in those who wield power having virtually no awareness of how their decisions impact the powerless.

These divergent trends are what make the work of photographer Robert Bergman so hauntingly powerful. The photo shown here is one in a series of images he took of everyday people on a road trip through the Rust Belt and East Coast. The photos where taken with a 35 mm camera using no extra equipment or special lighting effects. His work captures the humanity of the less powerful and serves as a stunning record of our times. Bergman then brings these images into a setting dominated by the affluent. His work is an invitation to ponder the stories behind the faces, and a reminder to those of us who wield power to consider our connection and interdependence to those with less.