The story Behind The Picture: Emmanuel and Samuel

Emmanuel and Samuel are friends and students of the ESL Sector 2 Elementary School. Emmanuel has the privilege to own a bicycle and he wants to study computer science. Samuel would be happy to be a civil engineer.

This sound banal except that we are in South Sudan in a Protection Of Civilian camp. Basically these young men have grown up during the war and have been in this camp for the last 6 years. They are at school learning English the official language of South Sudan. And like all kids of this planet they dream of a better world, a simple better life with basic freedom and perspective.

My idea was to show, in this reportage, more resilience than poverty. I have approached the population with my Leica for this medium term project explaining in details my goal to obtain their confidence. For you, the best way to imagine their life condition was to have an intimate look inside their house to see what they have.

All the objects own by Emmanuel and Samuel are visible on this photograph expect a small radio which is a real luxury inside the camp.

Technically it was not easy, space are small, light is poor. You have no electricity and no real windows, in general the door and a tiny opening in a wall. The Leica 28 mm Summilux was perfect for this kind of situation. I like the colour renditions of this fast lens and the possibility to isolate your subject despite the wide-angle focal.