visual story telling & education
Harmonious combination – Birzebuggia, Malta. Image ©Helen Jones-Florio
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Muchas gracias a El País por presentar mis retratos de jefes y ancianos de Gambia. Jason Florio, photographer/filmmaker
El Pais’ Opinion’ page ran the portraits for 6 days last week, both online and in hard copy. Jason Florio’s portraits form part of a larger body of work, ‘Silafando – a gift to you on behalf of my journey’. Formal portraits of Gambian chiefs (the ‘Alkalos’) and elders, taken whilst on the first fully documented circumnavigation of The Gambia, West Africa, entirely by foot – 930km. With producer, and photographer, Helen Jones-Florio.
Along with Jason and Helen, the small expedition team also consisted of three Gambians (Samba, Janneh, and Modou), and two donkeys (‘Paddy’ and ‘Neil’, kindly loaned to the team from The Gambia Horse & Donkey Trust charity) – to pull the cart of camera equipment, and camping gear. To read some of the road stories, and see behind-the-scenes images, from the walk, please visit Helen’s blog ‘A Short Walk in the Gambian Bush – 930km African odyssey‘
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December 2012: ‘Labé, the capital of the Fouta Djallon, Guinea-Conakry, is motorcycle city. The streets are overrun with thousands of cheap Chinese-manufactured bikes and ‘moto- taxis’ are the way to travel, carrying a minimum of 2-3 passengers. As we walked around the town, we constantly darted out of the way as a ‘moto’ zoomed towards us, at maximum speed – within inches of us – “à ton, à ton!”. The expression ‘take no prisoners’ seemed rather fitting, on the frenetic, horn-blaring, streets of the capital, as we leaped and scurried out the pathway of motorcycles, coming from all directions!
“In Labé, there are too many accidents every day.”
“In Labé, there are too many accidents every day.” Saif, our local fixer, told us as he led us through the clamorous, dusty, stinking, litter-filled streets of the downtown area. Despite the moto-taxi dodging, and the putrid aromas, Labè is a vibrant, animated, friendly place – ‘Jarama‘s (local Pula language greeting), ‘bonjour‘s, and ‘ca va’s abound, from every smiling, curious person we pass, as intrigued by the two ‘portos’ (white people/travelers/tourists) as we are of the streets of the West African city.
Little did we know then, the River Gambia Expedition team would spend almost 10 bone-shuddering hours hurtling down mountains from the source of the River Gambia, in the highlands of the Fouta Djallon, on the back of our respective moto-taxi riders bikes! A story for another day.
Words by Helen Jones-Florio – extract from the River Gambia Expedition. Images ©Jason Florio
Current Location: July 2020 – Malta
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Press: El Pais – Gambia, The Hidden Horrors of Africa’s Silent Dictatorship– Three years after the fall of the Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, pressured by the street after losing at the polls, a commission (Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations – TRRC) brings to light the terrible crimes committed for two decades, supported by its apparatus of repression, the collusion of justice and the outside inaction – Read the full feature El Pais / words by José Naranjo Noble
Press: El Pais – Gambia, The Hidden Horrors of Africa’s Silent Dictatorship
The images are from the on-going multimedia series
by Jason Florio and Helen Jones-Florio
Current Location: July 2020 – coming out of Lockdown London, UK
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