Global Goods, Local Costs:
Fashion’s True Price

Supported by The Pulitzer Center

Curated by Meghan Dhaliwal

Featuring Sean Gallagher, Jason Motlagh, Larry C. Price


Global Goods, Local Costs: Fashion’s True Price is a visual exploration of the human lives affected by the production of the clothing and accessories we wear every day. Photographers Sean Gallagher, Jason Motlagh and Larry C. Price take a hard look at exploitative working conditions, health hazards and environmental implications in the production of leather, garments and gold.

Behind almost every product we buy, there is a story that begins worlds away from where it ends. The local costs of the production of these goods too often remain hidden. They are obscured by companies and governments that put a premium on production and exports. They are little understood by consumers, whose concept of “price” and “value” does not include damage done to people and places half a world away.

Sean Gallagher is a British environmental photojournalist, videographer and multimedia producer who has been based in Asia for more than seven years. His work focuses on highlighting environmental issues and crises, with a specific emphasis on developing nations in Asia including China, India and Indonesia. Graduating in zoology from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, his background in science has led to his desire to communicate important global ecological issues through visual storytelling. His recent work on environmental issues in China was acknowledged as “some of the most striking images on display at [the] Copenhagen climate change conference,” by the BBC World Service. He is a six-time recipient of Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting travel grants and was the first winner of the David Alan Harvey Fund for Emerging Photographers in 2008. His work has been published internationally, appearing in Newsweek Magazine, TIME, CNN, The New York Times, National Geographic News, The Atlantic and BBC News. He is represented by National Geographic Creative.

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Jason Motlagh is an award-winning writer, photographer and filmmaker. Formerly TIME Magazine’s correspondent in Afghanistan, he has reported from more than 40 countries and is a regular contributor to the Washington Post, Economist and Virginia Quarterly Review. In 2010, his four-part series on the Mumbai terror attacks won the National Magazine Award for Digital News Reporting.

A seasoned video journalist, Jason produces news documentaries and features for the Al Jazeera English and America networks, PBS’ ForeignExchange, Time.com. His images have featured in leading newspapers, magazines, festivals and global advocacy campaigns. He is the co-founder of Blackbeard Films, an Oakland, CA-based production company.

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Larry C. Price is an award-winning documentary photographer and multimedia journalist based in Dayton, Ohio. Larry spent much of his career in newspaper journalism as a photographer and an editor.

A native Texan and journalism graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, Larry worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in the early 1980s. He won the Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography for his coverage of the 1980 coup d’état in Liberia in West Africa. The assignment was his first trip out of the United States and had a profound effect on his outlook on other cultures.

“I know I found my calling during that trip,” Larry said. “I suddenly realized I could control this little instrument in my hand and use my eyes to create images that had real impact and could cause change.”

At The Philadelphia Inquirer he covered crisis and conflict on three continents, including civil wars in Central America and Africa. Larry won a second Pulitzer Prize for his photography in El Salvador and Angola in 1985. He was among the first to photograph the pre-Taliban period in Afghanistan following the 1989 pullout of Soviet troops. More recently, Larry was an assistant managing editor at The Denver Post where he coordinated and edited the visual report from the events stemming from the 9/11 attacks and subsequent U.S. involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Price previously reported on child labor in Burkina Faso for the Pulitzer Center.

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The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an innovative award-winning non-profit journalism organization dedicated to supporting the independent international journalism that U.S. media organizations are increasingly less able to undertake. The Center focuses on under-reported topics, promoting high-quality international reporting and creating platforms that reach broad and diverse audiences.

The Center’s educational programs provide students with fresh information on global issues, help them think critically about the creation and dissemination of news, and inspire them to become active consumers and producers of information.
The Pulitzer Center is a bold initiative, in keeping with its deep ties to the family whose name for more than a century has been a watchword for journalistic independence, integrity, and courage.

When Joseph Pulitzer III became editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch more than a half century ago, he paid tribute to that legacy. “Not only will we report the day’s news,” he said, “but we will illuminate dark places and, with a deep sense of responsibility, interpret these troubled times.” The Pulitzer Center is driven by that same mission and deep sense of responsibility, in times just as troubled.