ROBIN HAMMOND | PHOTOGRAPHER

Robin Hammond is a freelance photojournalist born in New Zealand. He has been part of the photo agency Panos Pictures since 2007.

The winner of four Amnesty International awards for Human Rights journalism, Robin has dedicated his career to documenting human rights and development issues around the world, but especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2011 Hammond won the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award which allowed him to document in Zimbabwe for four months. Actes Sud published a book of the photos to coincide with an exhibition of the work in Paris in November 2012. In 2013 he won the FotoEvidence book award that will result in the publication of his long term project on mental health in Africa, Condemned. The same body of work was exhibited in September 2012 at the photojournalism festival Visa Pour l’Image.

After living in Japan, the United Kingdom and South Africa, Robin Hammond currently lives in Paris, France.

He contributes to many international newspapers and magazines including National Geographic, Time Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times, and Polka Magazine. He also works regularly with various non-governmental organisations.

All images © Robin Hammond / Panos

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CONDEMNED | ROBIN HAMMOND

CONDEMNED – MENTAL HEALTH IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES IN CRISIS

Where there is war, famine, displacement, it is the most vulnerable that suffer the greatest.

Abandoned by governments, forgotten by the aid community, neglected and abused by entire societies. Africans with mental illness in regions in crisis are resigned to the dark corners of churches, chained to rusted hospital beds, locked away to live behind the bars of filthy prisons.

Some have suffered trauma leading to illness. Others were born with mental disability. In countries where infrastructure has collapsed and mental health professionals have fled, treatment is often the same – a life in chains.

I started documenting the lives of the mentally ill in African countries in crisis in an attempt to raise awareness of their plight. I travelled to war ravaged areas of Congo, South Sudan, Mogadishu and Uganda. I spent time with the displaced in refugee camps in Somalia and Dadaab. In Nigeria I went to see the impacts of corruption on facilities for the mentally ill.

After 12 years of documenting human rights issues I’ve never come across a greater assault on human dignity. These people are unseen and therefore their suffering ignored. This project is being produced in the hope that no longer will ignorance be able to be used as an excuse for inaction.

© Robin Hammond / Panos.

Robin Hammond is a freelance photojournalist born in New Zealand. He has been part of the photo agency Panos Pictures since 2007.

The winner of four Amnesty International awards for Human Rights journalism, Robin has dedicated his career to documenting human rights and development issues around the world, but especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2011 Hammond won the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award which allowed him to document in Zimbabwe for four months. Actes Sud published a book of the photos to coincide with an exhibition of the work in Paris in November 2012. In 2013 he won the FotoEvidence book award that will result in the publication of his long term project on mental health in Africa, Condemned. The same body of work was exhibited in September 2012 at the photojournalism festival Visa Pour l’Image.

After living in Japan, the United Kingdom and South Africa, Robin Hammond currently lives in Paris, France.

He contributes to many international newspapers and magazines including National Geographic, Time Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times, and Polka Magazine. He also works regularly with various non-governmental organisations.

All images © Robin Hammond / Panos

Website

>>>

THE ABUSE OF DOMESTIC WORKERS

Around 300 million economic migrants are scattered around the globe. Photographer Robin Hammond documents the plight of domestic workers from Africa and Asia who find themselves abused, beaten, raped and even murdered by their employers in the west.

A sex bar in Angeles City, Philippines. The girls all share one dream: to escape to a better life Photograph: Robin Hammond

A prostitute leaves an Angeles City bar with a client, passing a sign advertising for new recruits. The girls are often under the age of 18. Domestic servitude abroad is, for many young Filipinas, the only other option Photograph: /Robin Hammond

Mary Joy Dgumila, 25, suffered sexual abuse while working as a domestic helper in Yemen. Manila, Philippines Photograph: Robin Hammond

Maria Soccorro de la Cruz was sexually abused and daily suffered degrading verbal abuse while working as a domestic worker in Lebanon and Syria. She went abroad so she may be able to make some money to support her family in Manila. Pictured here with her 7 year old grandson Kriz Loay Ignote in the Philippines Photograph: Robin Hammond

Children standing on their stilted home in the vast Tondo slum that sits on an estuary near Manila, the Philippines. According to a United Nations report, compared with other East Asian and South East Asian neighbours, poverty reduction in the Philippines has lagged far behind that of Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and China Photograph: Robin Hammond

Jeanette Dy, 37, suffered broken bones after attempting to escape her abusive employer by jumping from the balcony of the apartment she was working in as a domestic helper in Kuwait. Manila, Philippines Photograph: /Robin Hammond

Women queue for jobs as domestic helpers, mainly in Middle Eastern countries. Manila, Philippines Photograph: Robin Hammond

Sign advertising maids for hire in Beirut, Lebanon Photograph: Robin Hammond

An Asian maid in central Beirut, Lebanon Photograph: Robin Hammond

Filipina Mila, who was physically abused by her 'madam' while working as a domestic worker in Beirut Photograph: Robin Hammond

St Joseph's Catholic Church in Beirut where most of the parishioners are migrant workers. More than 100,000 mirgrants work as domestic workers or maids in Lebanon Photograph: Robin Hammond

29 year old Sri Lankan Indrani Ekanayaka who came to Lebanon to be a domestic worker. For 9 years she was locked in the house she was sent to and made to work up to 16 hours a day without payment. She escaped and is battling to get the money owed to her. She is pictured in the Beirut shelter run by the Christian charity group Caritas after fleeing her abusive employer Photograph: Robin Hammond

Laksetha Caritas Migrant Shelter, Beirut Photograph: Robin Hammond

36-year-old Gita, who was abused by a family in Hampstead: “I was held prisoner for two years and I wasn’t paid a penny for my last year’s work” Photograph: Robin Hammond

Divia, 33, came to the UK with her Malaysian employer as a domestic worker. Held prisoner, starved and beaten, she finally escaped. Photographed in London, May 2009 Photograph: Robin Hammond

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