1993 Photo Contest, Daily Life, 2nd prize
Photographer

Stephen Ferry

Matrix for Geo

01 January, 1992

Retired miners, many suffering from lung fibrosis, while away their days at the union hall. Life expectancy for these men is only 42 years. Cerro Rico, 'the rich mountain', in the Bolivian highlands, is like a rabbit warren. In Spanish colonial times this was a thriving city. At the time half of all silver ever mined originated from here, but the mountain is also the grave of millions of Quechua Indians. Their descendants still go down the mine shafts. They now look for tin, because most of the silver is long gone.

About the photographer

Stephen Ferry

Stephen Ferry was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA in 1960. His father, David Ferry, is a poet and translator, and his mother, Anne Ferry, was a scholar of English literatur...

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