I started this study of a travelling community living on the outskirts of society because I had a fascination with them due to what I had seen in the media as being a rather bold, obvious and negative opinion to take. I wanted to explore their lifestyles and challenge the stereotypical views that the media was taking.

I spent two months doing site visits to the Dorset travellers and a further seven months with another group of travellers based on the outskirts of Brighton. During this time I got to know them very well, building up a mutual trust and respect which offered me the opportunity to make a personal and intimate portrayal of their lives. I came to understand the close family values, morals and sense of cohesive society they hold. While with these communities I witnessed both births and deaths.

I took on the techniques of Gary Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, using obstructions and reflections and not always showing the identity of the individual. I encourage the viewer to look a little harder and realise we all know very little about these people, have a heritage of preconceptions and a distorted understanding of them. I hope to demonstrate the community as something that is not so clear-cut and transparent as one would like to perceive it to be.

Instead of portraying the shocking and negative elements commonly associated with these people, I wanted to share the common values and develop a greater understanding of who these characters really were. I captured the ordinary everydayness of people living but within a close-knit community.