SÃO TOMÉ E PRÍNCIPE—2020
This series was made during a short visit to São Tomé e Príncipe. I didn’t arrive with a defined project, except with an interest in public space and how it’s used.
I was repeatedly met with openness. Many people asked to be photographed.
Children play in rivers and on roadsides, making games from wire, sticks, and tyres. Work spills into the street. Play, movement, and learning happen in shared spaces.
The photos centre on something enduring: public space as a place of life.
For me, these photographs are about presence — about people occupying the world around them, and about being seen within it.
This series sits within my wider interest in public space: how it is used, who it belongs to, and how it allows people to appear, connect, and use space together.
“Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs.”
— Jane Jacobs
“To live is to be among others.”
— Hannah Arendt