Caroline Metcalfe a stunning set of images of people some consider 'other' that some societies marginalise and cast out. This photographer has shown the beauty of Albinism....
The project is to raise awareness about albinism and it’s diversity. People with albinism face several challenges in their life. Albinism is gene malfunction disease that is not infectious and cause the lack of pigment in the skin, hair. People with albinism lack the pigments also in their iris with cause in most of them a shorted eyesight or blindness in some cases. In general they usually have very bright eyes colors.
Albinos are having severe problem in Africa, the continent with the most dense population with people with albinism. In Europe for example the ratio is 1 to 16000 while in Africa its 1/ 2500 or 1 /1000 in some areas. In Tanzania locals hunt them down for their body parts cause they think it brings luck while in other parts of Africa they think they are witched or not human.
People with albinism are not getting access to the basic medication they need in certain countries so they end up dying for being neglected. Most of them die of skin cancer in the age between 30 and 40 with skin cancer.
In parts of Asia families with a child with albinism often dont accept the child as a part of their families. Even albinos in European countries, even though are not death threatened, they are still have to face the problem of being called names, bullied and harassed.
Albinism is a global disease that exists in almost every country regardless of race. My project should portray those people in studio and also in the city they live in and collect their impression and stories with the place they live in. Luckily I could get in contact with Albinos from different ethnic groups male and females but they are scattered everywhere.
I limited down my options to the ones in Europe. It will be challenging to collect the materials I need especially in these times with Corona, so I did a tight schedule that aims of not staying in each city longer than needed to do my research.