Irish Travellers are the most socially excluded ethnic minority in Great Britain to date. There are estimated to be approx. 20.000 in the country. They live on the outskirts of society and the peripheral existence reinforces a feeling of isolation. For a period of four years I followed the women and girls in the Stokes family. The Stokes lives in a house in Uxbridge, London. Irish Travellers have a long tradition for living on caravan sites, but more and more move into flats and houses, which separates them slightly from their own culture.
A nomadic lifestyle is vanishing and regularly religious practice subsides. Several girls have children out of marriage and more and more get divorced. Nevertheless, I experienced that the girls have a strong attachment to their ethnic group and still carries a catholic belief in the minds and hearts. The women and girls are very complex to define because they live in a time of transition to popular culture. The essence for me, however, is their direct energy, a living body language and a sensibility and depth I am trying the best to portray in my ongoing project.
PECKHAM & UXBRIDGE, LONDON, UK