Turkish freelance photographer Gülbin Özdamar spent time photographing Romany people when she was living in the Czech Republic in 2007 and revealed what she says is “the racism and discrimination” she found there.

Twenty-eight-year-old Gülbin from Eskişehir, who attended a World Press Photo seminar in Turkey in 2002-2003, says she started a project to highlight the Romany minority “who are stigmatized as `gypsies` by the dominant majority in the north eastern city of Usti Nad Labem."

Says Gülbin: “The street of Matiční is seen as a ‘gypsy` district and the local government built a wall there in 1999 to separate the Romany and Czech peoples. The reason given was to prevent environmental pollution caused by garbage left by the gypsies. But the main reason was the prejudice and the negative image that the natives had about gypsies. So the wall was constructed in order to isolate the Romany minority in Matiční.”

“There is a social organization which organizes some activities for gypsy children but it is not enough. Some cannot even go to ordinary school. Mostly they go to special training schools apart from Czech children.”

Gülbin is a graduate of the Department of Journalism at Anadolu University in Eskişehir and has a scholarship from the Film and TV School (FAMU) at The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

She has exhibited in the Czech capital as well as in the UK and the USA and curated an exhibition entitled Intimate Revolt supported by FAMU.

“I used a Contax G2 type of range finder camera with 28 mm and 50 mm lenses” says Gülbin. “I prefer to take all of my photos with natural light.”