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New Projects ...updated 24th May 2009

Mosou Culture China 2009
By Simon & Katerina

Hi, Katerina and I are currently in South West China studing the last matriachal society for our Matriarchal project. We have come to Lugo Lake, the home of the Mosou People, on the border of Yunnan, Sichuan and former Tibetan. Our stay here will be for 2 months...

We hope to complete a series of paintings with the local people to investigating whether the culture will survive the influence of Modern Patriarchal China ?

We also plan to make an animated project with women and children, using the pictures they have painted.

Karamoja Tribe, Uganda. 2007 & 2008
By Simon

Animated Documentary Film: Karamoja Faces 2008/09

From November to March I have been creating a partially animated documentary film about Karamojong women who go to the city to beg with children and babies.

During my previous visits to Uganda in 2006/7, I was researching the general plight of the Karamojong in the capital 'Kampala' and in the arid conflict stricken Karamojaland. The issue of karamoja women using children and babies as objects for begging is one of the most compelling stories that I have seen.

Article: Removing Karamojong for CHOGM. 2007

Business initiative: Karamoja Design

Matriarchal Project. 2005 to 2008
(Disappearing Matriarchal Cultures of the World)
by Simon & Katerina

This is a project to highlight the last societies on the planet that have naturally placed women as equals or even leaders, without them having to fight for their rights. What makes them so different to the West and are they going to survive ?

Khasi & Garo (India), Minangkobau (Sumatra), Zapotec (Mexico), Kuna (Panama), Mosuo and Pi (China).

Slovakian Gypsies. 2006 & 2008
By Simon Bird

In May 2008 I made a return trip to the Gypsy Villages I visited in 2006. On my first trip I found settlements with no electricity, running water or sanitation.

Article: Slovak Gypsies revisited. 2008

Czech Panelák flats. 2006 & 2008
(The last big standing structures of the Communist era)
By Simon Bird

Earlier this year I also returned to Prague, drawn back by the power of the Panelák flats. From winter through to summer in 2006, I captured scenes of everyday life around these communist blocks of flats.

People of Maize. 2007
(Life in the Guatemalan Countryside 10 years after the civil war)
By Kateřina Karásková

Living with the families of the victims for 6 months, Katerina listened to the stories of those who survived the massacres that took place during the civil war, 1971-75. The portraits she made are a rare glimse into hearts of a people whose perpetrators have yet to be brought to justice.

The Panama and Suez Canal 2005
By Simon Bird

Lazing around watching enormous Tankers drift past on the Panama Canal, and then, on a different trip, relaxing on the banks of the Suez Canal spoting the ships heading South to the Gulf.

Mummy, Monster or Pharaoh. 2004
By Simon Bird

During a 1 month trip to Egypt I became obsessed with the Mummy !