What do you know about Albinism?
MY FRIDAY PHOTO STORIES…..Pt 4
HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PEOPLE LIVING WITH ALBINISM?
Albinism is caused by a defective gene that produces and distributes melanin (a dark pigment) throughout the body. It's passed down through generations in families, from parents to children. If you carry the albinism gene, it may be passed on to your child.
The reduced melanin production means people with albinism have extremely lighter than normal skin, and are prone to sunburn. Their eye sight is also very poor, verging on near blindness, and light coloured hair.
Hollywood always would present Albinos as 'baddies' in their movies, which also helped persevere the stigma of Albino's. And in African many were murdered because of their supposed 'lucky' body parts, or subversively because they are presumed to bring bad luck.
My personal photo projects always connect me to cultural or situations around societal issues, so once I took a deeper look into the circumstances and related problems that surround individuals suffering from this unfortunate disease, I knew that I had to focus my lens on the subject of Albinism.
I love producing long term projects on subjects, topics or issues that I know very little about, but it's also something that's not a million miles away from us, we all see people with Albinism from time to time.
This particular photo project took me 3 years to complete, and saw me travel around the country, researching, locating, approaching and finally photographing as many people as I could.
I loved working on this project, I met some amazing, broadening on heroic people, who all have their own most horrendous of experiences, not only from the condition, but also socially, from stigmatisation, bullying to near death experiences.
The young fellow in my first picture below is photographed on a hot summers days at his local swimming pool, a massive contradiction to how one should act in the sun - if you suffer from Albinism. But Colin loves swimming, especially on a beautiful day, but he also knows the dangers so he's very careful.
My second image is of Helen Yates who had self-esteem problems that came with her Albinism issues.
The project help me secure a 5 page feature in the Sunday Times Magazines, which was a joy for me, and enable me to go on and work with the magazines for a number of years.
I wonder, how much do you know about people with Albinism?
