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Priorities People often ask me how I feel after a trip to Africa, seeing and meeting people living in different cultures and lifestyles. It is always interesting to watch the reactions when I always answer in the positive regardless of the severity of the situation I have been in. It seems peoples’ perception of Africa is dictated by what is seen on TV and in newspapers and that is usually negative. Or through ignorance from racism engrained in minds by education from adult to child. People tend to switch off because of compassion fatigue when another picture of another starving child is seen and then they end up with a total lack of understanding of how people actually live in Africa because of the resulting lack of interest, so negative thoughts and barriers remain. This body of work examines peoples’ wants in Africa and in Wales when confronted with a simple question. What is the most important thing in your life? The idea came when I asked a Head Teacher such a question in The Gambia. He took me by the arm to a pile of bricks outside the school and picked one up. He said ‘ this is the most important thing to me as this will be a new classroom for another 40 children’. I wondered what a Head Teacher would say in Newport or Swansea. These photographs were taken in a vox pop style, not asking hundreds of people and picking the best, just asking people I have met, asking the question and recording the answers. They cover all ages, occupations and lifestyles in Wales and around Africa. Are we different? Do we think in a different way? Are our loves and values so alien to each other that we must keep barriers raised? For me the answer is NO! Examine the answers and then decide for your self.
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