For hundreds of years, all over Europe, gypsies have have lived among us, but have never really assimilated into our cultures. They remain apart, on the fringes, still mysterious after all this time. All I ever knew about them came from literature. films and music.

Gypsies, tramps and thieves anyone? And even there they were subject to massive differences, either demonised as the ‘other’, thieves, perpetrators of all sorts of heinous crimes and black magic, or romanticised, pictured sitting around camp fires surrounded by their their horses and caravans, long haired beauties dancing to the sound of mournful violins.

For years travelling around the Balkans I saw them, either in cafanas or at weddings, playing music, or trundling around the cities in improvised, cannibalised funky vehicles, recycling trash to sell. But I never ventured much into their villages. I didn’t want to photograph them because I knew that to do it honestly I would have to spend a lot of time with them. Time that I was spending on other projects. Then a few years ago on the outskirts of Pancevo the planets aligned and there I was, photographing a small community of Roma.

What did I see? Ultimately that’s for you to make up your own minds. When you look at these photographs I would like you to ask yourself the questions I asked myself every day I was amongst them. Do they live like this because they are gypsies or because they are dirt poor? Do they reject our societies, or do we reject theirs? Is our mistrust of them justified or are we really jealous of them and their version of freedom? I never went far enough into their story to really answer my own questions. I don’t know if I ever could, it would take a lifetime I think. What I do know is that this particular group of human beings were gracious and kind enough to allow me an intimate glimpse of their lives.

For that I am very grateful to them. To them I would say, carry on living your Roma lives, there are many things you can teach us.

Michael John Bowring

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