Asylum from the Madness

Ciudad Juárez in Mexico frequently trumps Mogadishu as the world’s most violent city. 35km outside the city in the desert is a mental asylum run by it's own patients. These people were deposited at the asylum by family, police or border patrols. They are in trauma. They help each other. This is a beleaguered promised land populated by outcasts. An asylum from the madness. 

A city of 1.5 million where eight people are murdered daily with impunity should not herald people of light. Yet here they are - generous, kind and loving people who allowed me into their lives. Following the work of Eugene Richards and Diane Arbus in mental institutions, these portraits attempt to reveal a tender yet tough representation. My approach was to embrace the alternate realities, the daily churn of tasks, the waiting, the hoping and the mystery.

201pp book including 23 full colour photographs, paperback. Available here