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Our galleries in this edition – five no less – come from east and west. Two are from countries independent again after the fall of communism in 1989; Belarus and Albania. The other three are from India, Pakistan and Thailand.
Andrei Liankevich hoped that his photography might answer a fundamental question – about his own identity. He worries that people in his native Belarus do not want to know about the history of the nation and that without culture, traditions die.
He wants the photographs in his gallery to open his people’s eyes to what makes Belarus special.
One tradition in Albania that photographer Bevis Fusha wants to highlight is the blood feud. In the north of the country, it is not unusual for members of one extended family to swear revenge on another because of a killing.
And that means that large numbers of relatives are always on their guard and in some cases do not ever stray far from their homes.
Elsewhere, whole families move many miles from their home territory to escape the threat of violence.
Bevis’s images show just what this can mean for everyday life.
Earlier this year, the Pakistan army sent large numbers of troops to the Swat Valley in the north-west of the country in pursuit of Taliban militants. And that led two million people to flee to what have become huge refugee camps.
Photographer Edwin Koo, from Singapore, spent time in the camp at Mardan to shoot images for his gallery, showing how one military operation can displace a population the size of a city.
As the world knows too well, terrorism of a terrible kind can strike anywhere without warning.
When it came to Mumbai (Bombay) in November 2008, Mumbia Mirror photographer Rana Chakraborty was so quick to react that he found, when he arrived at the scene, his camera batteries were flat.
After he had fetched fresh ones, he thought he would go for a less obvious approach to covering the story. His gallery is the result.
Our fifth gallery comes from the underworld of Bangkok in Thailand.
Vinai Dithajohn, who is based in the city, spent nights amongst the young street gangs, drug dealers and prostitutes of the city.
As his images show, it is no wonder this part of the city is known as Risky Bangkok.
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