Exhibition
The Herder Boys of Lesotho by Tom Oldham
26 Jun 2017 – 1 Jul 2017
Event times
11am - 7pm daily
Cost of entry
Free
White Space
Address
- 5 Great Newport Street
- London
England - WC2H 7HY
- United Kingdom
Photographer Tom Oldham's first solo west-end exhibition showcases his portraits of the Herder Boys of the Lesotho hill regions.
About
Tom Oldham first visited Lesotho in 2009, shooting for the NGO Riders for Health, on a whistle-stop shoot travelling through this mountain kingdom. On the winding, climbing roads he’d see herder boys tending to their animals and immediately imagined a series of images that he just couldn’t shake from his mind – their distinctive silhouettes against the sky, these icons of Lesotho wrapped in the woollen blankets that provide their only protection from an intense sun or a brutal winter.
The herder boys work astonishingly hard, for very low pay, in the toughest conditions imaginable. It is the only option available to some, who often have very little formal education and can enter into this employment from early childhood.
In November 2016, he was able to return to Lesotho to shoot these portraits and with some valuable assistance from the team at Riders for Health he came home with some very special new work.
This exhibition has been supported by Hasselblad, and it has been printed and framed by Metro Imaging. This is Tom’s first solo West End exhibition and is being hosted at the White Space Gallery, on Great Newport Street - just off Leicester Square in London from June 26th to July 1st, 11am-7pm daily.