Italian photographer shows kids with 'fake food' to highlight hunger in India

A series of photographs shared by Alessio Mamo, an Italian freelance photographer on World Press Photos' Instagram handle underlining issues of hunger in India have received a lot of flak ever since it was posted on Sunday.

The images posted on the social media portal showed a series of pictures, called "Dreaming Food," with malnutritioned andunderprivileged children standing with their hands on their face, covering their eyes, in front of a table of fake food. The photos were taken in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The captions read: "These photographs are from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh two of the poorest states of India. From the series "Dreaming Food", a conceptual project about hunger issue in India."

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The photographer said in the caption that he had “brought a table and some fake food, and told people to dream about some food that they would like to find on their table.”

Mamo said he thought of doing the project after learning how much food is thrown away in the West.

Ever since the pictures were posted, the photographer and the non-profit organization have been subject to numerous criticsm over social media from many users including photojournalists, with many saying that the photograph had depicted poverty in a way that was exploitative and gimmicky, a portrayal that is known as poverty porn.

World Press Photos has released a statement following the backlash. The company stated that Alessio Mamo was awarded 2nd prize in a Photo Contest which was conducted this year for his portrait of Manal (11), a victim of a missile explosion in Kirkuk, Iraq.

The winners are then "given the opportunity to take over the World Press Photo Instagram account for a week to share work of their choosing."

The statement further said that the comapny provides "guidelines to the photographers undertaking a takeover."

"Alessio Mamo’s takeover started on 16 July and ended on 22 July. Other than his portrait of Manal, none of the photographs Alessio has shared were awarded prizes in the photo contest," the statement mentioned.

"The World Press Photo Foundation is a platform that connects members of our community (contest winning photographers, masterclass participants, etc.) with the general audience. Being a platform we do not limit photographer’s choices beyond the guidelines provided, and we ask the photographers to respond directly to the audience when questions arise," it further said.

The post got over 700 comments on Instagram and a number of users took to Twitter to unleash their outrage as well.

Alessio Mamo is a Sicilian freelance photographer based in Catania. In 2008, he began his career in photojournalism focusing on contemporary social, political and economic issues. Alessio extensively covers issues related to refugee displacement and migration starting in Sicily, and extending most recently to the Middle East.

His pictures have been published in major international magazines such as TIME, Newsweek, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, The Sunday Times, National Geographic, Geo, L'Espresso, The Guardian, Le Nouvel Observateur, Focus Historia, Marie Claire, among others.