The Travellers

My project ‚The Travellers‘ gives insight into the everyday life of Ireland`s largest minority group. This group has a nomadic origin, stemming from the tradition of migrant workers.

My project The Travellers gives insight into the everyday life of Ireland’s largest minority group. This group has a nomadic origin, stemming from the tradition of migrant workers. As this tradition no longer exists, the Travellers are searching for a new identity within Western European society of the 21st century. Their traditions and way of life differ greatly from those of the majority society and are therefore met with little acceptance. Travellers live in a kind of parallel world with rules of its own and clearly defined traditional gender roles—a world to which outsiders have little access.

To this day, some Traveller families live illegally by the roadside, mostly without electricity, running water, or sanitation, despite the existence of government-provided halting sites where they are officially allowed to stay with their caravans.

I first travelled to Ireland in 2011 in a VW bus to photograph the Travellers. My intention was to capture their way of life and values without romanticizing them, focusing instead on everyday reality. A life in which people still hunt rabbits and horses play a vital role, but which is also marked by hardship and boredom from an early age.

Since my first encounter, I have remained in contact with one large Traveller family. Over time, I gained their trust and was allowed to live with them, so that both my camera and I became part of their daily lives.

The children I photographed in the early years have since grown up and started families of their own. After an eight-year break, I began 2022 returning to the same families to document this new generation. This continuation of the project reflects not only personal change, but also broader social developments. The situation of Irish Travellers is considered one of the most pressing human rights issues in Northern Europe. Against this background, my work examines whether the official recognition of Irish Travellers as an ethnic group has led to tangible changes in their living conditions, social inclusion, and sense of identity.