ADAM HINTON | PHOTOGRAPHER

I began my photographic career at the age of 12 when my dad bought me a basic SLR camera. I became fascinated with a new way of looking at the world and the ability to record things of importance to me. It was a way of marking out my world.

When I was 15, I received the first installment of compensation from the Government following a knife attack (my attacker had a thing against punks) and instinctively I knew what I was going to spend the money on: more lenses. When I received the rest of the money at 18 I spent it all on a set of professional cameras and lenses. From that moment onwards, photography has been the constant focus for me. It has enabled me to vocalise my other interest: politics. Studying photojournalism in the 80s enabled me to articulate my feelings, beliefs and values into a visual medium that I could communicate to others. I would take photos at all the demonstrations I went to: anti-apartheid, anti-nuclear, the miners’ strike and the picket lines at Wapping. I hoped, and still do, that my images could portray something of the way we live today, how each action has a reaction, that nothing is without cause or response.

I believe in the good of people. Wherever I have travelled, the people I have met and stayed with have been welcoming and open. Even in the most dire situations, when almost everything seems negative, I find myself photographing the positives. When I stayed with a family in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro I found that in spite of the level of violence surrounding people living there, it was outweighed by the community’s cohesion. They had, without any external help, organised football and ballet classes for the children and adults, art clubs, after-school care and had built their own library. Families supported each other and the community had a strong sense of social solidarity. This is what I wanted to photograph, not the violence and danger. When I first started taking pictures I found that the social documentary style of B&W suited my work brilliantly (things were more black & white to me then). However, as time has gone by, I have moved away from the more traditional image to something I think is more fluid and spontaneous.

All images © Adam Hinton

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ANIMAL ANCESTOR PORTRAITS | VALERIE LEONARD

Connecticut artist Valerie Leonard has great appreciation for animals and sees them as more than just household pets. She sees them as a way to pay homage to esteemed ancestors in elaborate oil paintings.

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CONDEMNED | ROBIN HAMMOND

CONDEMNED – MENTAL HEALTH IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES IN CRISIS

Where there is war, famine, displacement, it is the most vulnerable that suffer the greatest.

Abandoned by governments, forgotten by the aid community, neglected and abused by entire societies. Africans with mental illness in regions in crisis are resigned to the dark corners of churches, chained to rusted hospital beds, locked away to live behind the bars of filthy prisons.

Some have suffered trauma leading to illness. Others were born with mental disability. In countries where infrastructure has collapsed and mental health professionals have fled, treatment is often the same – a life in chains.

I started documenting the lives of the mentally ill in African countries in crisis in an attempt to raise awareness of their plight. I travelled to war ravaged areas of Congo, South Sudan, Mogadishu and Uganda. I spent time with the displaced in refugee camps in Somalia and Dadaab. In Nigeria I went to see the impacts of corruption on facilities for the mentally ill.

After 12 years of documenting human rights issues I’ve never come across a greater assault on human dignity. These people are unseen and therefore their suffering ignored. This project is being produced in the hope that no longer will ignorance be able to be used as an excuse for inaction.

© Robin Hammond / Panos.

Robin Hammond is a freelance photojournalist born in New Zealand. He has been part of the photo agency Panos Pictures since 2007.

The winner of four Amnesty International awards for Human Rights journalism, Robin has dedicated his career to documenting human rights and development issues around the world, but especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2011 Hammond won the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award which allowed him to document in Zimbabwe for four months. Actes Sud published a book of the photos to coincide with an exhibition of the work in Paris in November 2012. In 2013 he won the FotoEvidence book award that will result in the publication of his long term project on mental health in Africa, Condemned. The same body of work was exhibited in September 2012 at the photojournalism festival Visa Pour l’Image.

After living in Japan, the United Kingdom and South Africa, Robin Hammond currently lives in Paris, France.

He contributes to many international newspapers and magazines including National Geographic, Time Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times, and Polka Magazine. He also works regularly with various non-governmental organisations.

All images © Robin Hammond / Panos

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