Fernando Moleres

In this show we see his work on juveniles incarcerated in prisons in Sierra Leone. The liveliness and humanity of the pictures give the series a closeness uncommon in this kind of work. There is no explicit violence but we can feel the dehumanisation to which they are subjected, the situation that these youngsters go through, imprisoned for months before they receive sentence. In Sierra Leone there is no written law and therefore the poorest layers of society have no right to a lawyer. In this work, carried out by Moleres between February and October 2010, we see his involvement in a problem that is very hard for the country to solve. A situation that afflicts the most underprivileged layers of society, which have no voice or vote against the established power, and for which willingness to find a solution has always been remote. Moleres presents the raw reality and leaves the rest up to us in order not to leave us uninvolved and to sensitise us to these unjust situations. He makes us wonder why life has to be so different depending on one’s place of birth. This is Sierra Leone, but there are examples in many countries in the world. Juveniles are the central focus around which Moleres’s work revolves in the studies he has made in his career as a photojournalist; through his eyes we sense the tragedy of the situation and the feelings that these youngsters convey. The extraordinary respect of his approach imparts the warmth and tranquillity required to appreciate work that sets out to open our eyes, seeking to stir the consciences of all societies that view these situations from a distance.