The photographer

Marcus Vallance picked up a camera in the winter of 2015, on the Greek island of Kos, where he had gone to volunteer as refugees came ashore from Turkey in rubber boats.

He stayed a week, then came back and followed the route north through Greece to the Macedonian border and the camp at Idomeni. The portraits he made along the way became his life's work.

In the years since he has photographed in camps and poor communities across the world: with Syrian families in Jordan and Lebanon, with the Rohingya in Bangladesh, and in many places between. His pictures are close, direct and unhurried. They are made with the people in them, not of them.

His photographs have been published worldwide and are syndicated through Getty Images and SOPA Images. His series Hope, portraits of Rohingya children, was released as a limited collection, with a quarter of the proceeds going to the Malala Fund. He has exhibited in London, Milan, Madrid and Amsterdam, most notably at The Savoy in London, where he was the sole exhibitor at the 2020 British Photography Awards.

Alongside the humanitarian work he photographs musicians, artists and brands, and takes on portrait commissions in the UK and abroad.