Light in Darkness

My vision for this series was formed after my first trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2015. Once I met the kids that lived on the streets and saw the conditions that they have to survive in, my heart knew I needed to show this scene in a way that will make the viewer experience the darkness that surrounds these kids every day and night. This year, I went back to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to continue work with Make Your Mark. They are a non-profit based is Addis that helps get these kids off the streets and back with their families or with a foster family. Street kids range in age from as young as 5 or 6 all the way up to 18 years old. Most of them ran from home because of bad situations or their parents may have kicked them out or sent them to the "big city" to find work. After they arrive to the city and realize its not as easy as it seems, they become homeless and get hooked on drugs. These kids form groups that they consider to be family. They look after each other, will even sleep in a big pile under blankets at night to keep warm and help protect each other from rapists, or other adults who mistreat them, spit on them, urinate on them, etc... to most of the locals they are viewed as dirt. But we know there is still hope for them. They are the light in the darkness they live in, they just don't know it yet. Make Your Mark helps them realize this. The photos in this series were taken around 5 - 6am right before sunrise when it was safest to walk through the streets. I used a Mamiya 7 with 80mm f/4 lens and shot on Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed 3 stops. I wanted to capture their scene and environment, where they sleep, etc...