Ruth Robinson - photographer

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For the past three years I have been working as a social documentary photographer alongside charity organisations in developing countries, including Uganda, Romania, Belarus and Bulgaria.

In 1997 I travelled to Uganda where I worked alongside Ezra, a Welsh based organisation building a primary school in Bunanbutye, a remote village in the north of the country. The photographs have been used to help support and raise awareness of the work of this organisation. The images have been used in educational talks, exhibitions and on the Ezra website. I returned to Uganda in July 2000 with the directors from Ezra in order to continue this work.

I then worked in Bucharest, Romania with an organisation called Asociatia Sprijinirea Integrarii Sociale. This Romanian N.G.O provides support for the street children in the capital. My role was to highlight the many problems faced by these children every day of their lives. I went out onto the streets with workers from A.S.I.S., to meet and photograph the children who have to cope with many difficulties from lack of food and medicine to physical abuse or indifference
from the public.

I returned to Romania in December 1997 with the organisation, Partnership for Growth. I undertook a journey across the country and photographed the distribution of aid and the long term projects this charity have set up. These images appeared on promotional material to support their annual Shoebox Appeal.

Ability UK asked me to photograph all aspects of the Stackpole Centre, Pembrokeshire in June 1998. This is a residential activity centre for people with special needs and their families run by Ability UK. These images have been used in promotional material, at shows and on the organisations website.

In April 1999 I accompanied the director of Ability International to Bulgaria. This charity is trying to encourage integration of children with Special Needs. The aim is to get them out of the orphanages and back into the community. The pictures are used to highlight the capabilities of this very special group of children. One of the images has been published in the magazine Dazed and Confused.

I then travelled to Minsk, Belarus in September 1999 with a medical team working with the Belarussian Orphanage Project. I photographed the surgical procedures for repairing cleft palates, as well as the progress some of the orphanages have made. I also photographed the dire conditions that children are forced to live in at the asylums. This project ‘Operation Smile’ was sponsored by the British Embassy, Minsk and became the subject of a documentary on HTV’s Wales This Week.

My next assignment involves travelling to Uganda at the beginning of 2001, in order to work alongside the organisation, Uganda Society for Disabled Children.

As well as carrying out educational talks for schools, colleges and organisations, I have put on several exhibitions. The most recent was called In My Eyes… and was held at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. I have also displayed my images at several conferences for various organisations, including VSO.

I am a Welsh based photographer with a BA (Hons) Degree in Photography in the Arts. I am a press photographer for the South Wales Guardian newspaper. I also lecture at Swansea Institute of Higher Education, where I am studying for an MPhil Degree. I am a registered photographer with Arts Care Carmarthenshire, a community based arts project working to provide arts in health and social care sectors. As a member of the Welsh Photographic Federation, I travel round to regional Camera Clubs and organisations to give slide talks on my work overseas. Occasionally I will undertake a reportage style wedding assignment.