Portfolio

A Boarding School in Leningradskaya Oblast

150 children and youngsters study and live at the boarding school which is located in a small Russian town. Most of them live at the boarding school during the week and went home to their families during the weekends. Some children live permanently at the boarding school because their parents lost their parental rights because of alcohol abuse, imprisonment or other social problems which makes it impossible for them to take care of their children.

In addition to education the children gets clothing, food, care and love from the staff. The school gives priority to education with small classes of 12-15 students. The small groups allows children to get the special education that they need. 90 dedicated employees work at the boarding school including 40 teachers. There are employees that are available for the children around the clock. The children sleep in dormitories that are divided by age and gender.

The boarding shool was getting a much needed renovation. Craftsmen had recently changed pipes for water and sewage into the building. They worked with the toilets and bathrooms and some of them were finished at the time when I visited the boarding school.

Text and Photo: Mikael Good

War Of Ages

Greetings from Pauleasca

Follow me to three small villages in Romania where EU migrants that begs on the streets in Salzburg in Austria and in the Swedish towns Jönköping, Linköping and Stockholm come from. Pauleasca consists of three villages and about 4000 persons live in the area.

You can read the whole article here: chasid68.blogspot.se/2014/12/the-village-that-doesnt-exis...

Text and Photo: Mikael Good

08. Meetings in the middle of China

The images in this exhibition were taken in the Qinghai province in the middle of China in mid-December 2004. I was the first white man who visited the villages and a large crowd followed every step that I took. The people in the villages are mostly Tibetan and to my surprise many of them was Muslim converts. They converted from Tibetan Buddhism to Islam in the mid 1900 century. The people in the different villages now know that white men are big and tall, have long hair and beard, smiles and laughs a lot, eats easily with chopsticks and like very spicy food :)

Qinghai is located on the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. The Yellow River (Huang He) originates in southern part of the province, while the Yangtze and Mekong have their sources in the southwestern part.

The people living on the countryside in Qinghai are mostly Tibetan and of a total population of 5 400 000 people, 1 100 000 belong to the Tibetan minority. Most of them are farmers. They live in houses built by clay and wood. It only rains once or twice a year in the region and the people collect the rainwater in water tanks, they use the water for farming, cooking and drinking. They are really short of water and washes themselfs just a few times a year. In winter time some of the men from the villages work as construction workers in the nearby cities in order to get some extra money for their families.

The exhibition Meetings in the Middle of China was the first photographic exhibition that was displayed at an IKEA store in Sweden. The exhibition has been on display at LIFE Force Magazine and will also appear at 591 Photography Gallery in april 2011.

09. Greetings from Latvia – Sveicieni no Latvijas!

Latvia is the country in the European Union that has suffered hardest by the economic crisis and the country is now in a deep economic recession. The previously so Optimistic Latvian Tiger Economy which was pumped up by the major Swedish banks aggressive lending lost its bite and the country has gone into a deep economic recession. Workplace after workplace has gone bankrupt. According to official statistics nearly 20 percent of the population is now unemployed but unofficial sources are talking about an unemployment rate of almost 40 percent and in some rural areas in the east of Latvia the unemployment is almost 100 percent according to social workers.

The exhibition Greetings from Latvia has been shown at Gallerian Port 9, Örnsköldsvik • Lastbil 2010, Jönköping • 591 Photography Gallery • Kungsporten, Huskvarna • Fjällräven Center, Örnsköldsvik • LIFE Force Magazine (UK). Articles about the families in the exhibition has also been published in various Finish, Norwegian and Swedish newspapers and magazines.