The Children Of Dungu

Hipsters Assemble!

How goes it? All good? Yes? Brillo-pads! Nyree and I (correct grammar) have just been chilling mostly when not working on this bad boy of a project. Seeing as your a beautiful hipster reading this post you know what we're talking about. 'The usual' is how we refer to it. And if on the off chance that you are not a hipster and you are reading this and your wondering what 'The usual' entails? Here's the tip of the vanilla iceberg;

Drinking copious amounts of coffee in fashionable cafe's about good old Dublin town.

Wrapping an assortment of scarfs about our necks. All linked in to the particular colour scheme of the outfit.

Wearing designer glasses even though we don't need them (We both, in fact, have the vision of a hawk. A fashionable hawk mind you.)

Chatting to other hipsters about hipology, hipchanics and hipmatics.

Reading books by authors who are all dead or close to death.

Walking around IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) for 4 hours straight and when the security guards ask us if we are OK, replying only in Flemish.

Eating only Vegan foods with our hipster gang. Then sneaking off like covertly and tucking into Bacon Double Cheese Burgers from Burger King after saying goodbye. We will admit that here. With you. For you. Because we're friends.

And last but not least, listening to music through the medium of vinyl. No iPod's of iPhone's for us thank you. We don't conform. (We are in talks with Apple about the Hipsters we met and liked App. We'll keep you updated).

The femme fatale that is Della Kilroy sent us in some seriously good pics and a lovely copy (A phrase we use in the biz for accompanying text. Whatev's. ) to go with it. We're just gonna let these do the talking for us. All jokes aside. Beautiful moving shots. Check em out.

Congo Chronicles -

I took this series of images while in a remote village in the North East Democratic Republic of Congo. The community featured lives in constant fear of attack from Joseph Kony’s Lords Resistance army and it is one of the most underdeveloped places in the world. This does not take away from the spirit, hope and resilience of the children. These images reflect a simple time where children, some suffering from trauma and memories of their time with the LRA, play and share with each other. There was a language barrier between myself and the children pictured; yet a universal language emerged with the use of facial expressions, laughter and miming. These are the children of Dungu.

• Image 1 – Joyful Abandonment 1: (The Mango Tree)

This image features a mango tree where most of the children shade from the hot sun. Swinging from the branches are two young boys. One of the boys, who doesn’t know what age he is, escaped from the LRA, he has a scar from a gun shot wound on his left arm. To me this image reflects hope and serves as a reminder of what childhood should be all about. A joyful attempt to abandon ones troubles perhaps.

 

• Joyful Abandonment 2: (Worlds Apart… Or Is It?)

This photo was taken of a little boy playing with just a rubber tire and a stick. He was shy but happy and very appreciative of his simple possession. Worlds apart from the developed world of play stations and constant entertainment, or the simple joys of back to basics play?

• Joyful Abandonment 3: (Tongues Out)

For a lot of the children in remote Congo they have never seen their own reflection. Once I showed them images of themselves you could hear sounds of laughter, shock and lots of smiling. Some were most amused by the colour and look of their tongue.

• Playful Protest 1: (The Skeleton)

This photo was taken in Dungu village when a boy, seeing I had a camera, was determent to show off his hoodie. His friends laughed behind me as he zipped up his jumper in playful protest.

• Image 5 - Playful Protest 2: (Children Say Boom)

On my first day in the community where the children, featured in this image, live I was imitated by a girl who copied my walk and hand gestures. I played along and 2 minutes later had around 10 children playing a version of the game ‘Simon Says.’ With no official language in common this image reminds me of the universal language of play. I told all of the children to say BOOM and then pose, this image is the result.

Uber Dankeschön Della, these are gonna be a great addition to the show!

Talk soon Hipsters!

Nyree and Brian

Hipsters we met and liked

"Whatev's, we're over it".