I was honored to be one of 22 photographers to have some of my work selected for Open Here as part of the Hereford Photography Festival. The festival opened yesterday and continues until the 26th of November.

Open Here is an open submission exhibition, they had over 300 applications.

“The exhibited work represents some of the newest, most exciting work being made in the UK and internationally.”

The work that was selected where 5 images from a project ‘Salone Nights’. ’Salone’ is slang for Sierra Leone.

These five images were taken behind a brothel in a town called Makeni; young people gather here to listen to the music escaping from the Flamingo nightspot.

Mains electricity is still not available in Makeni since a brutal and bloody civil war halted production of a hydro-electric dam.

Many of the young people in Sierra Leone are on the street and exiled from their families due to the shame of being child soldiers and forced into prostitution.

These portraits were lit with the light from their mobile phones; with the lack of infrastructure a mobile phone is a vital part of modern life.

I was in Sierra Leone in 2010 with the Piers Simon Appeal delivering school bags to two Orphanages and a school, supported by Street Child of Sierra Leone/HANCI and Orphfund.

Slone Nights @ Open Here @ Hereford Photography Festival 2011

If you would like to see the images they are available online here.

Check out the rest of the Hereford Open Exhibition on Facebook here.