Kike Arnal: In the Shadow of Power

In the Shadow of Power is a shocking visual exposé of the harsh social and economic realities in the capital city of the richest nation on earth. Washington, D.C., is much more than its tourist destinations, and Venezuelan-born photographer Kike Arnal's book describes a search for that other city: a city that, incredibly, has the nation's highest infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and AIDS infection rates, and where 16 percent of local children live in extreme poverty. "With a population of roughly 570,000 people, the District of Columbia is, by world standards, a small city," Arnal writes. "Its manageable size would seem to indicate that Washington could fulfill expectations naturally associated with a city of its global stature, to take care of its people. The disparity that I saw compelled me to spend the next few years documenting Washington, D.C., in order to draw attention to the realities of the city." Arnal first visited Washington in 2002 while on an assignment, and was stunned by the poverty he encountered ("I was reminded of the marginal barrios back in my home country,"he recalls); here he brings to light the lives behind these grim statistics.

Kike Arnal was producer on a number of BBC and National Geographic documentary films before turning his hand to documentary photography in the late 1990s. Since then, he has covered stories across the globe and had his work featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times and Life magazine.