It was dusk, that magical time when day surrenders itself to the mysteries of the night in a golden embrace, a storm was approaching, the wind was starting to gain speed, people were shuffling about to get to the shelter, but the boy and his guitar were completely lost inside a piece music that had to happen. I walked past him but he did not see me, I photographed him and he was completely unaware. He was floating inside of his art.
In this life the lucky ones are those who find out what it is they love…
What a great settlement it is to know what makes you do your best, what passion drives you to give the most out of yourself, what your art is. Some people know that and they live in a state that is immediately identifiable. It is the quiet state of knowing that what makes your heart skip a beat and what gives you peace is within your reach because you have identified it. For this boy in the streets of Kashgar it was a home-made musical instrument. He loved it. His mother told me proudly how good he was able to play it and how many hours he did just that. He is one of the lucky ones.
Childhood is the most sacred part of life. We as adults are entrusted with it to shield it, protect it and allow it its full potential…
And yet, in places like Congo, children are forcefully taken from their families by armed forces, sometimes as early as 7 years old, forced into military training, a life of crime, drugs, war and are shoved brutally into an ugly adulthood robbing them of their gift, their innocent childhood.
UNICEF and other NGOs have been actively struggling to save these children from the grips of war, offering them temporary sanctuary in an attempt to help them kickstart their childhood again and reunite with their families or other foster families in the Congolese society.
With arts, some of these children told me that they are able to escape into other places in their minds, places free of their memories of war, of killing, of brutality. They can dream of a normal life, of happiness and of recapturing the freedom that is an integral part of childhood.