Drone photos of Mumbai reveal the places where extreme poverty meets extreme wealth

Johnny Miller




Mumbai is a city of imbalance. With an estimated wealth of $950 billion, the city is the 12th richest in the world, ranking ahead of major urban centers like Paris and Toronto. Much of this prosperity is due to the combination of a large billionaire population and the presence of India's oldest, and most prominent, stock exchange.

At the same time, more than half of the city's population lives in slums, or areas of extreme poverty that often lack access to clean water, electricity, and public transportation. With an estimated 6.5 million people residing in these conditions, Mumbai has the largest slum population of any city in the world.

This disparity is not unique to India. As cities around the world become denser and more urbanized, the gaps between rich and poor have widened to intolerable extremes.

But unlike in many cities, Mumbai's slums sit at the heart of economy activity in the urban core. This has resulted in a unique geography, wherein packed single-story dwellings border the city's expensive high-rise buildings.

In his ongoing photo series, Unequal Scenes, photographer Johnny Miller captures the troubling inequality of Mumbai, whose remarkable progress has given way to many unfortunate side effects.