Great portraits and landscapes captured in Lesotho by Jason van der Merwe as part of a community outreach project.
These beautiful landscapes and portraits were taken in Lesotho by Stellenbosch-based photographer Jason van der Merwe, while assisting on a project with Growing Nations.
Jason writes: “I went to Lesotho on an outreach mission with a church based in in Stellenbosch called Kruiskerk, together with a group of students from the Stellenbosch University. Before embarking on the trip I knew I was in for a treat into an endless opportunity of photography possibilities – if I had the time for photography.”
“My inspiration behind the photos are purely my love for children, photography and to inspire people to go out and help. I went there for three weeks, we worked everyday helping these people work on their crops, etc. There was a massive communication block between me and them, so making them understand what my camera is, was quite a challenge. A lot of the kids were afraid at first so I had to snap a quick shot and then show them the back of the screen. After doing that a few times and then playing with them they got more and more use to the camera and enjoyed it and that is when you capture real emotion in them.”
“Most of the time you only see these photos of poverty and kids suffering, which is true they doβ¦ But you rarely see them happy in these photos. I wanted to show that they are normal, they have fun, they can smile and with even so little and so much suffering they do live life and smile.”
View more of Jason’s work on his website and Facebook page.
