Street Angels
– Street Angels Website –
London Exhibition, October 27th to November 12, 2014
Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre.
17-25 New Inn Yard, Shoreditch High St, London EC2A 3DA
There are 55,000 children living and working on the streets of Kabul. Unless they are dramatically killed by a roadside bomb, the world ignores their existence. Their lives are miserable doing tedious, low paid and often dangerous work on some of the most polluted streets in South Asia.
It is hoped that this new perspective on the lives and difficulties of poor Afghanis, in the form an exhibition tour, permanent website, and documentary film, will help raise international awareness of the problems there and provide images and stories unusual enough to attract some media attention to their situation. Also in partnership with Friends of Aschaina UK, the tour hopes to raise much needed funds to get the children off the streets and into vocational courses.
London-based photojournalist Guy Smallman teamed up with Kabul based artist Azim Fakhri to develop the Street Angels project. Guy has been visiting Afghanistan professionally for several years, and is convinced that little can be done to materially improve the country’s conditions unless the international media conversation about Afghanistan changes.
The pilot project (funded by Guy & Azim) involved teaching the basic of photography to 5 street children and then issuing them with cameras to document their lives. The resulting body of work has exceeded all expectations.
Guy said: “I have been a photojournalist and documentary photographer for nearly 20 years and I am in awe of the work that the children produced. Especially considering that they had never picked up a mobile phone let alone a camera before this began.”
The children’s work has now been organised into a stunning exhibition, which along with an accompanying documentary about the project, is now ready to tour and raise much needed awareness and funds.