Children of IBO

Children of IBO

United Arab Emirates | Thursday, September 8, 2011 | 5 photos

Hi, I'm Katie, I was born in Estonia in 1974. I have been taking photos forever, the excitement of telling the story with pictures will not let me leave my house without my camera. I am not a person of many words... perhaps this is the way for me to express myself, me dunno! But I am addicted to photograpy and would love the opportunity to learn from the best with your scholarship... Every day I am thinking of new destinations to visit, places to be discovered. I like the best 'off the beaten track' destinations, places forgotten about, places that require effort to travel to. This time I chose to visit IBO island, surrounded by shallow waters and mangroves off the coast of Mozambique. It is a place in ruins to put it nicely, still you can see the former glory in every street corner. Since 1974 when Portugese were given 24 hours to pack their bags for good, the place has not seen much maintenance, country was in civil war for 20 years. Things are looking up now - two month ago the island finally celebrated arrival of electricity, that is now provided for 4 hours every evening... However, what I found most inspiring on this island were its children. Average life expectancy on IBO is 40 years, so it is not surprising that the average age of IBO's population is just 14 years. I found myself using every free moment just walking up and down the streets and communicating with this happy crowd in few words we found in common. Their faces do not talk of hardship and tough times... they simply know no better, they are simply happy. In Western world we do know better but does this make us any happier??? I found myself taking more and more pictures of these faces as for me the children of IBO was IBO, the life and spirit of IBO. I will let the pictures do the main talking... I hope you will find the place as captivating as I did. Equipment used for all photos: Canon EOS 5 Mark II with Canon 16 - 35 mm f2.8 II L MK II USM lens and fill in flash