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Earlier this year I learned of a project called 'The Other Hundred', a unique photographic, not-for-profit endeavour aimed as a counterpoint to the clichéd lists of the wealthy and powerful canonized in so much of our media today.

Conceived by Chandran Nair, Founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT), a Hong Kong-based social venture think tank dedicated to trying to reshape the rules of global capitalism, the big idea behind 'The Other Hundred' was to share the stories of people around the world who are not rich or famous, but whose lives and achievements still deserve to be celebrated.

Explains Nair, “The implication [of those rich lists created by mainstream media] is that being rich is the only way to succeed or live a life of meaning.  The reality is that the majority of the people in the world are not rich and we wanted to tell their side of the story."

I was struck by the concept and mission and immediately decided to submit some of my photography for consideration.  Drawing inspiration from the work that I had done with The Chain Reaction Project in Timor-Leste, I decided to send a collection of imagery I made in the capital city of Dili a few years ago.

My photograph of a young, joyous Timorese woman was selected as one of the 100 featured photo stories (gathered from more than 11,000 images captured in 158 countries and submitted by nearly 1,500 photographers from around the world).  “We received thousands of submissions from photographers of beautiful photos...  But we didn’t want beauty.  We wanted people’s stories,’’ elaborated Nair, adding, ‘’We wanted to demonstrate what success should look like, what prosperity should look like -- this isn’t an anti-rich display by any means... The book is designed to challenge our perceptions of what prosperity really is.’’

Chandran Nair recently appeared on CNN where he spoke of (among other things) 'The Other Hundred' and encouraged people to "look at the world in a different way".

An exhibition of the 'The Other Hundred' photography recently premiered in Hong Kong and will be traveling around the world -- visiting Singapore, Mumbai, Beijing, Berlin, Istanbul, Dubai and New York -- in the months ahead.

'The Other Hundred' is available for purchase on Amazon and at fine booksellers worldwide.