Proud for one second

Story about the Batwa people form Kisoro, Uganda: The Batwa spent their whole lives in the forest. More than 20 years after eviction from their ancestral land, these days the Batwa people are still suffering. The church and some non-governmental organisations helped by buying land for settling on, but despite of that, the Batwa people are still squatters and labourers without land for farming of their own. The Batwa are impoverished, and lack of regular income causes very limited acces to education and healthcare. They survive on handouts and begging. The community I visited is called Mukingo Batwa Village, with a number of 35 households. The church of Uganda had build 15 units of householding facilities, and the rest of the families builed their homes with reads and polythene papers. My heart broke when I met these people and the conditions were they have to live in. I visit them 10 days.

As a documentary photographer, Janssen capture the moments he recognises in his fellow human beings, especially those elsewhere in the world. In everyday moments, he finds the same needs, insecurities or pleasures that all people enjoy in their lives - albeit to different degrees. In a world of polarisation and contrasts, sometimes even on one continent, Janssen settles geographical and symbolic boundaries by photographing people in a pure essence. He photographs the richness of our most basic human needs, like freedom, family and security - or, conversely, the absence of their obviousness.