Paper short abstract:

This paper shows how young female wastepickers generate an alternative narrative and topics of what is focused in the popular media.

Paper long abstract:

Due to the economic crisis in Argentina increased the figure of people who are collecting informally recyclable material in Buenos Aires. This growing phenomenon in the beginning of the millennium elicited the formation of groups pushing forward negotiations with the government to formalize waste picking. Specially the groups travelling from the Suburbs in the "white train" to the centre of the capital were focussed by the media. Being disappointed that their situation of poverty was exposed and used by the journalists from just one perspective, most members of the cooperatives distrust now film projects. During my fieldwork with a group I noticed a lot of young women working regularly. In the moment of giving the camera out of my hands, they began to record the environment from their perspective focusing on their children. Analysing the material it gives clues on the identity as mother and wastepickers. This film project shows an alternative aesthetic to the image build up by the popular media in Argentina in the framework of shared and collaborative Anthropology.