On a recent evening in Berlin, the air was filled with anticipation. SAP Data Space The Arts and Nature Social Club (ANSC) welcomed photographer, journalist, filmmaker and author Johnny Miller, initiator of the Unequal Scenes project. ANSC is a non-profit organization that connects art, science, business, and politics to make ecological and social issues tangible. Under the title "(Un-)Equal World," the Inspiration Salon this evening addressed the topic of social inequality.
Miller, who grew up in the USA and has been rooted in South Africa for more than 15 years, is internationally known for his photo series Unequal ScenesUsing drones, he captures contrasts that vividly reveal the direct juxtaposition of wealth and poverty. His work has received worldwide recognition, been featured in leading publications, and presented at prestigious art fairs such as Photo Basel and Unseen.
Source & Copyright Johnny Miller - Unequal Scenes Mumbai
Johnny Miller shows truths from above
Miller began by looking at Cape Town, one of the most unequal cities in the world. "We often think of inequality as organic—that it just happens," he said. "But in South Africa, you see the lines: highways, fences, entire neighborhoods that deliberately divide."
In 2016, he first flew over these invisible walls with a drone. What he saw from above was brutal: villas with swimming pools right next to corrugated iron shacks, golf courses on the edge of shantytowns, slums that abruptly ended at walls. "I posted one of these pictures on Facebook – and overnight it went viral," he recalled. "People didn't know me, they didn't know if I was white or black, left or right. They were just arguing about the situation in the picture. The conversation was bigger than me.
These images can be used as historical sources and are only possible through the use of drone technology. The images translate inequality into a language everyone can understand. The recordings transform over time, making the project virtually infinite.
Source & Copyright ANSC
From Cape Town to the whole world
Miller soon expanded his project to Mexico City, Mumbai, Manila, Nairobi, Bogotá, Jakarta, and even San Francisco. Everywhere, the same choreography of extremes: glass skyscrapers next to improvised settlements, walls of shame separating the rich from the poor.
One of his most famous images—a Johannesburg suburb bordering an informal settlement—landed on the cover of Time magazine in 2019. The fact that it appeared the week of the South African elections was a bombshell. "Inequality is not a South African problem," Miller emphasized. "It's global."
The hidden costs of the gap
Miller drew a connection from images to data. Since the 1970s, he explained, the income share of the top 10 percent has steadily increased in almost all major countries. The compound interest effect, as Thomas Piketty described it, is causing the super-rich to pull away: "They've long been out of reach."
But Miller didn't stop at the diagnosis. He pointed to new research showing that the more unequal a country, the worse the health of its population—even the wealthy. "Inequality eats into the social fabric, into trust, into long-term quality of life."
Source & Copyright Johnny Miller - Unequal Scenes Peru
Art brings society into conversation
What's special about Miller's work is that it not only documents, but also captivates aesthetically. His bird's-eye view seems almost abstract: street grids like delicate patterns, slums as textures, walls as sharp lines of light and shadow. "A crying child in a slum makes people defensive," he said. "But a cityscape—half mansions, half shacks—allows for dialogue. Then we talk about architecture, about systems. And we can talk about change."
He's currently working on immersive journalism formats: Augmented and virtual reality will allow people to step "into" his images and hear stories from residents. "I'm not a Leica purist. I want the latest technology and do something cool with it—anything that makes us see things differently."
In search of a common horizon
The ensuing discussion focused on colonial history, extractive economies, and tax policy. Miller himself repeatedly returned to the idea of imagining. "The problem isn't a lack of data," he said. "We lack a common North Star. The climate movement had its two degrees. When it comes to inequality, we don't even know what we want to measure. People still disagree about whether inequality even exists."
Source & Copyright ANSC
And yet he saw hope: new public spaces in South Africa that bridge divides; collective savings systems of African communities; and, last but not least, Berlin itself – once divided, now a laboratory of integration. In keeping with the spirit of the club, the evening ended with an intimate conversation. People from Mumbai, Colombia, and Germany spoke about inequality in their everyday lives and what could be changed locally.
Miller left with a thought: "Every picture is a question. What happens when the settlement reaches the wall? What if the fence is no longer sufficient? These are not South African questions. These are questions for all of us."
Johnny Miller's visionary outlook
What remained was not just a wake-up call, but the opportunity for a rethink. Viewed from above, inequality no longer appears to be a natural state, but rather a man-made design—lines that could also be redrawn.
Miller's photographs are less an obituary for our torn societies than an invitation to redesign them. In a time that seems to be stuck between despair and repression, his work opens up a third path: to look clearly, feel deeply, and draw new maps. Not of separation, but of shared futures.
