From the Andes to Africa…
If you’re in the Bristol area over the next few days, please check out the Stokes Croft Arts House, where this photo, along with work by other photographers and artists, is on display and will be auctioned on 2nd July to raise money for the Malawi Education Project.
I took the picture in the village of Cuatro Esquinas, Peru, while I was working on a documentary project with Ayuda en Acción in 2004. Cuatro Esquinas is an isolated mountain community in the arid south of the department of Cusco. Two days on horseback from the nearest road, the village is extremely isolated, and at over 4000m in altitude it is at about the limit at which people can scratch a living from the soil.
The boy in the picture is throwing the ball to me, inviting me to join him in a game of football. With the altitude, I barely had enough energy to take photographs, let alone kick a ball. I was eventually roped into a game, but after 10 minutes or so I made my excuses, between gasps, and retired, unable to keep up with a bunch of 10-year olds.
Hidden Stories @ Migrant Voice conference
Bari, Florella, Jean and Oscar; four of the subjects of ‘Hidden Stories’, a project about the personal stories of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants which I shot while doing my MA at London College of Communication. 12 of the pictures were exhibited in London last weekend at the Migrant Voice/Churches Refugee Network annual conference, and you can see a bigger selection on flickr.
From Madrid to the Sahel
Last week Mely and I went to see Marina Urbina Yeregui’s exhibition on paintings of the Sahel, on at the Centro Vasco Euskal Etxea (Madrid) until 30th May. Marina’s paintings are the fruit of a month-long journey through Niger and Burkina Faso, and the images form an evocative impression of daily life in the midst of the vast, heat-blasted landscapes of the Sahel. Well worth a visit if you’re in Madrid this week.
La semana pasada, Mely y yo fuimos a ver la exposición de Marina Urbina Yeregui que se expone en el Centro Vasco Euskal Etxea (Madrid) hasta el 30 de mayo. Las obras de Marina son el fruto de un mes de viaje en Níger y Burkina Faso, y las imágenes forman una impresión que evoca la vida cotidiana bajo el sol abrasador y los inmensos paisajes del Sahel. Vale la pena visitarla si estás en Madrid esta semana.
