On a recent trip to Tajikistan I supported a group of  volunteers from Charity Road Trips.

We were carrying out a project to supply emotional and financial support to a group of children at Sworde Teppa English language school in Quergon Teppa in the South West of the country.

We received a very warm welcome and much encouragement to make a repeat visit.

While out in the streets I continued to document children as I came across them. I was met by intense expressive  faces which seemed to speak of a silent acceptance of undisputed poverty. At the same time I found a surprising maturity and a wistful look of hope amongst them which spoke to me.

Tajikistan is the poorest nation per capita in the whole of Asia. In the rural communities right across the country people are reliant on an ancient and polluted irrigation system for their daily water needs. This water is often contaminated with chemicals and pollutants and unsafe for human consumption. Water borne diseases are also common and life expectancy is poor for the vulnerable members of society. Assuming survival into young adulthood, the Education system gives the next generation a poor start to life. Children will be lucky to have learnt any Maths at all and language teaching is also very patchy. With so little employment to be found  The men are prone to leave for Russia in search of work, leaving the women behind to tend to the crops and raise the children, often never returning and never being heard of again. Despite all this hardship, the people of Tajikistan are warm and friendly and keen to share their hospitality with foreign guests. They are proud people with strong traditions which keep them in touch with simple pleasures. On a visit to a state orphanage we brought a welcome change to the monotony of the normal day for these children….

“To close the gap between the world we have and the world nearly everyone wants”…….

I have been commissioned recently to shoot their ” mock ups” and protests in central London over several political issues. The  resulting visual effects often involve an eerie and  surreal set of oversized figures against a backdrop of iconic London addresses.