Walking home
Chris de Bode
Drakensberg Mts, KwaZulu Natal, SOUTH AFRICA 2008
A young girl walks home from school in the Drakensberg mountains. HIV has swept through communities in South Africa. Denial of the impact of the virus has had a huge impact on many lives and has changed the shape of the family as mothers and fathers die from AIDS. The impact on children is dramatic. Grandparents often step in to take on the role of primary carer. But who cares for whom? Many grandparents are frail and in reality, it is often the children who assume family responsibilities.
This image was part of a project advocating for improved childcare to reduce pressure on this generation of young people. During the project Chris De Bode was with a young woman when she received news of the death of her mother. Aged 21, she became head of the household, responsible for her two brothers, four cousins and an aunt who was too weak from AIDS and TB to look after her own children.
Specification
Chris de Bode
Dutch born Chris de Bode’s path in life started with a dream. On his way to primary school, he always passed the photo shop in town. By the age of 10, he could advise people which camera to buy. In his early twenties, he was still searching for a purpose in life, until he remembered the photo shop. He decided to buy his first camera. As a mountaineer he took his first pictures. Following a trip to Palestine he decided to focus his work on humanitarian issues. He now has travelled to over 90 countries, meeting people and collecting stories.
Chris searches for find different angles in visualizing the stories he works on. In ‘No Way Home’ he has tried to explore what it means for people to lose their homes while ‘Tour du Monde’ took him to China, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Qatar and Senegal, following international cycling teams as they raced across diverse terrains and through culturally and politically charged environments. The work was brought together in ‘Tour du Monde’ (Schilt) published in 2009.
More than a decade ago while on assignment to photograph Ethiopian children in their school. He decided to ask them what they dreamt of? At first some answers seemed improbable, or mere childish fantasies. A closer look revealed the opposite to be true: almost every child’s dream turned out to be a solution to things that needed improving in their lives. Little did he know that this would be the start of a ten year global project to photograph and collect children’s dreams culminating in the publication of DREAM (2019).
Print Care
Paper and ink
We print on Hahnemuhle Baryta FB, an archival fibre based 350gsm fine art paper. It is a bright white paper with a traditional character finish and heavy weighting. This paper has long been the industry standard paper for digital printing.
What is a giclée print?
Giclée comes from French and literally means ‘squirt’, referring to the spray of very fine drops of ink that produce an inkjet print. We print with archival paper and pigment inks to the accepted standards of fine art giclee printing found within the collectors market. Prints should last over a hundred years and with care longer than this. Avoiding extremes of light, heat and humidity will help prolong the life of your print.
Your Print
When will I receive my print?
We produce prints in a batch every two weeks. Shipping can take up to one week in the UK, and two to three weeks internationally. Orders should be received within 3-5 weeks depending on your location.
What will I receive?
Your print will be posted flat, in a protective sleeve, to avoid damage or curling in transit. Prints come with a Panos Prints provenance certificate with background information about the image and the photographer.
The paper is A4 sized, the image will be smaller than A4 with a white border around it - see Image Specification for exact image size. Borders will be laid out as demonstrated by the print images on the site. We do not provide framing services and images of framed prints are only meant to be illustrative.