The thinking behind coffee table book with a difference, The Other Hundred Educators, about grass-roots teachers worldwide
Hong Kong-based think tank chief Chandran Nair set out to challenge the idea that education is about going to an Ivy League school or getting an MBA by focusing on little-known teachers helping communities everywhere
Glossy “top 100” coffee table books will feature the world’s most beautiful people or the most fashionable, perhaps the best golf courses. And then there’s the Forbes rich list. But what about those at the other end of the scale, the 100 poorest?
Chandran Nair was curious, and the founder and CEO of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, an independent Hong Kong-based think-tank, created a photo book project, The Other Hundred.
The first book, published in 2013, contrasted the lives and achievements of 100 ordinary people from around the world with celebrities on the rich and famous lists. Nair and his team contacted photojournalists with the question – who are the poorest hundred? – and asked for stories.
“We wanted to create a book of photography that went beyond exotic images – we’ve all seen the shot of the beautiful Afghan woman with piercing eyes in the shadow of a destroyed building. We thought someone local might see things differently,” says Nair.
The team received thousands of photos from 130 countries. Many of the well-known photographers didn’t understand the aim – this wasn’t about a photo of a poor child with a running nose eating from a plate on the floor.
