A recent shoot for a story covering a new initiative to get young members of the travelling community training and engaged with vocational skills. The shoot took place in a community centre on a travellers site in deepest South West London.
The girls on the course mentioned that in this day and age there is still a lot of stigma and suspicion of members of the travelling community and due to this many of them do not enter mainstream education therefore ending up with no real qualifications.
Local courses such as this provide them with an eventual recognised diploma that can then be used to set up a small business such as in this case working in beauty therapy.
My only real exposure to the travelling community had been through television programmes such as 'My big fat gypsy wedding' and it was nice to have these preconceptions both challenged and qualified. I've never met such a polite group of people and to listen to their stories was both enlightening and humbling.
These girls certainly took a lot of pride in their appearance and after shooting the course session they loved posing for the camera - I also noted that Ralph Lauren seemed to be the label of choice...
