No Life / Jungle Life

While shooting a long term project in the refugee camps of Northern France I helped run a photographic workshop for under 18s in the Jungle Book Cafe; a safe space for children, providing 3 meals a day, workshops, language and music lessons and advice on asylum. Despite the hardships that these children had faced on their journeys and the deprivation of the camp they remain curious, creative and for the most part happy - like kids anywhere. I asked permission from both the Mary Jones, who ran the Jungle Book Cafe and the kids to take pictures that showed their faces and who they truly were. Mary was very keen for me to do this as her wish was that these children would be given asylum in the UK or fostered and images of masked kids didn't help their cases. I followed the kids throughout their camp experience, what happened to them during the destruction of the camp and continue to shoot in Calais as although most were promised passage to the UK under the Dubs Amendment, few were allowed in and those who weren't have returned to Calais in the hope of finding a way across the Channel.