A photographer and lecturer from Cambridge is hoping to stage a photography
project which will run for two weeks at the Roma community, Lunik IX in Košice,
Slovakia.
Julia Johnson, along with Slovakian photographer Artur Conka, are seeking
funds to help teach Roma children photography while creating a body of work with
them to address the issues the community faces, particularly concerning
education and health.
Some 15,000 Roma live at Lunik IX in truly shocking conditions. In the 1980s
the Slovakian government deemed anyone they considered to be sociably
unmanageable into Lunik IX. Consequently the buildings have become vastly
overcrowded. There are huge issues surrounding crime, health and the welfare of
the children who live there.
Yet, in spite of this within the community is a thriving nursery and school.
The students learn subjects and are served hot meals at lunch: a provision that
any child should be entitled to. It is within these spaces that Julia wishes to
develop the project, teaching the children how to use photography to document
the community, whilst they continue to document the wider participatory
programme.
