Will Robb Photography

Lately I’ve been preoccupied with work, I’ve been shooting fashion pieces for websites and newspapers, doing some travel work for guidebooks, shooting a wedding, chasing bad clients for money, setting up new jobs and even my train time has been mostly about sending off work emails and sending photos to clients via my mobile me gallery on my iPhone. When I’m busy I get really focused on the task at hand and can tend to forget about what’s going on in the world around me as I’m only looking to the future, for the next steps I have to take in life to achieve my goals. Every now and again though, it’s good to get reminded how lucky I am to be doing what I am doing, living where I am living and knowing the people I am lucky enough to have met in my life.

The other day I was going through some archives for some travel stock from Japan and got sidetracked by some images from Thailand I took a few years ago. When I was in there I spent a day in the slums of Khloeng Toi with a charity group, The Duang Prateep foundation, who ran schools for children, organised waste disposal and even funded a fire brigade as the government wouldn’t provide any amenities for this deprived area. The people really were living in poverty, the charity schools there were operating at costs so low that each child there can get education for one year (including meals each day) for a mere $30. However, even with costs as low as this the parents in the area just didn’t have enough money to afford such a luxury, so donations from people (mostly people in Japan actually) were the main means for covering the costs of education. The kids in the school were really bright kids, they were learning English and were confident in asking me questions and they were loving what they were doing, just as all children should have the chance to do. However, once we were outside in the slums and I met kids there, they just seemed despondent, they didn’t speak much and seemed to have the weight of the world resting on their shoulders. Some of the charity workers I was with told me that the few kids they manage to educate usually do well in life, but those without the schooling end up living their lives in the slums, becoming gang members as the only means of making a living, usually selling drugs and guns. It really hammered home to me the importance of education and how it really does put so many opportunities our way.

Out and about in the slums there was real poverty everywhere, some entrances to houses were rammed with trash, most houses were built over stinking pools of sewage filled water, the stench in the summer heat was pretty over powering, but that’s just how life is there. People were going about their daily business, hanging clothes up to dry on spaces where buildings had collapsed, making use of whatever was available.

Despite living in such dire conditions, the people there were very friendly and open. With the help of an interpreter everyone we spoke to would answer questions openly about life there, they would open their doors to us, offer us food and drinks and we would sit and chat about their lives like I had known them all my life. I’ve often found on my travels the people who have the least amount of possessions are the ones with the biggest hearts. It was amazing to see how the people made do with what they had and didn’t complain, that’s the way life is for them, they just have to get on with it and do the best they can. I really enjoyed my time there, I was very fortunate to meet and photograph so many interesting people.

So, I was glad to take 30 minutes or so out of my schedule the other day, just to go through the archives of my images which are in many ways the archives of my life as well, documents of my memories that I dip into every now and again that serve to remind me that I am really lucky to have the life I have.