Created Equal

Mark Laita is a Los Angeles and New York based photographer that I came across, purely by luck, on the web. His series of work which he calls “Created Equal” has fascinated me at once. He goes after to draw attention to a commonly known, but usually ignored situation in our society today: Polarization.

While the gap between the rich and the poor widen, the divergence between the conservatives and liberals strengthen, Laita argues to remind us that beyond all we are created equal, we are all the same, until our environment, circumstances and fate has shaped us into whom we are today. Frankly, I couldn't agree more…

Looking at some of his photographs of radically different, but essentially the same people I can’t stop thinking what might have happened if they were born to different cultures, different societies or different environments, I can't stop asking what might have happened if those “twist of fate” moments have twisted the other way around for these people.

Mark Laita, Company President (2006) / Cleaner (2004)

Mark Laita, Catholic Nuns (2002) / Prostitutes (2002)

Mark Laita, Homeless Man (2002) / Real Estate Developer (2005)

Mark Laita, Amish Adolescents (2004) / Teen Punks (2004)