Matt Moyer October 3, 2008
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Egypt.Tags: Egypt
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Child Labor In Egypt
Photojournalist Matt Moyer has worked on assignment for publications such The New York Times, The Guardian and People among others. He began his career with The Citizen, a small daily newspaper in Auburn, NY. He later lived in Cairo for three years learning Arabic and worked on a project about child laborers. These photographs received multiple awards in the PiOY competition. Moyer returned to the Middle East in April 2003, entering Iraq just after Baghdad fell to US troops. He spent four months working in Iraq and received his first assignment for National Geographic magazine in October 2003 to photograph the Shia of Iraq. He recently finished working on another project funded by National Geographic, looking at the private military industry and the guns for hire that make up the industry’s foot soldiers. Moyer is represented by Getty Images.
About the Photograph:
“I had been photographing an area of Cairo that was host to a number of pottery factories. They weren’t actually factories but rather mud hovels where workers made clay pots. I had spent months gaining access and befriending the workers. Child labor was rampant but many of the children working at the site were related to the men working in the factories. These families had no other choice but to have their children work at the site. If the children didn’t work, earning valuable income, then there would not be enough money to put food on the family’s table. One afternoon I was shooting and saw this little girl bathed in the late afternoon sun. At first she just stared at me but then she slowly looked off camera with eyes full of sadness.”
Verve Photo- The New Breed of Documentary Photographers 
Great image! Captures the essence of humanity. Well done.
Beautiful situational portrait – really touching. The lighting, color, and depth of field is so perfect it makes it look almost staged, but we’re brought squarely into reality by the dirt on the little girl’s arm and caked onto her jacket. The emotion in her eyes is undeniable.
[…] The new Breed of Documentary Photographers: Matt Moyer “I had been photographing an area of Cairo that was host to a number of pottery factories. They weren’t actually factories but rather mud hovels where workers made clay pots. I had spent months gaining access and befriending the workers. Child labor was rampant but many of the children working at the site were related to the men working in the factories. These families had no other choice but to have their children work at the site. If the children didn’t work, earning valuable income, then there would not be enough money to put food on the family’s table. One afternoon I was shooting and saw this little girl bathed in the late afternoon sun. At first she just stared at me but then she slowly looked off camera with eyes full of sadness.” (tags: documentary photography) […]