The Real Toy Story' by Michael Wolf
Huh.
This came to mind as I found myself recently walking down the washed out aisles of Wal*Mart after everything else had closed exhausted and delirious on a rather unnecessary late-night coffee run. I had parked on the opposite side, so while I made my way across the store for a desperate caffeine fix, for some reason I remembered this story my mother had just told me about some friend's findings of a letter in her box of newly purchased Halloween decorations. Apparently it had been written by a factory worker, a cry for help. Sure, perhaps the story wasn't even true at all but there I was then, lost in my own response thinking about this and the various effects of consumerism, living in a society that supports consumerism, even I myself as a consumerist...
I was looking around then at all these THINGS, these unnecessary THINGS, and quickly found myself distracted, wandering through the various sections I had needed to pass to get to the coffee. Making my way through the clothes, the shoes, the jewelry, I was curious and although I was mostly certain of it before, I knew it then for sure, personally- that every single thing in sight (besides the American flag, of course) really had been made in China. So, this is the real story.
This lead to a whole new world of thoughts but ah! Surely everyone knows that the readily available, cheaper things bought here usually are not made under the best conditions and most often do not come from our own country at all (or at least this should be known by now) but to come across these pictures, to understand this directly though these amazing, powerful images....well, they are definitely worth a look.
http://imgur.com/a/wrIds
(Michael Wolf, from Germany, has a portfolio here - http://photomichaelwolf.com)
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