CAPTURING THE RESILIENCE OF THOSE LIVING ON THE FRINGES OF SOCIETY

September 23, 2024

The trust that has grown over the years is an opportunity for a lot of closeness, but also a responsibility to live up to it. To tell the stories, to draw attention to things. To use the power of photography.

TOBY BINDER

Raw, powerful, and honest. Toby Binder’s unfiltered reality of life and the struggles and resilience of those living on the fringes of society are beautiful, poignant, and often heartbreaking but also filled with promise and hope.

The images he captures through his lens tell the untold stories of those who deserve to be seen.

His timeless black and white portraits are a profound social commentary, offering a window into the lives of those often cast into the shadows of modern society.

Toby’s work as a documentary photographer shows us the essence of everyday life in working-class communities, revealing the stark realities of family, football culture, poverty, crime, drugs, and drink.

“I like the rough cordiality of the people in the working-class neighbourhoods,” Toby tells us, “Where football was a way out of poverty for teenagers even up to the 2000s. And where, despite many problems with unemployment, drugs and crime, respect and honesty are valued.”

Toby was born in the suburbs of Stuttgart, Germany, and before his life as a photographer, he had spent his days dreaming of becoming a professional footballer. It wasn’t until he started studying at University that his passion for photography evolved.

It was then his love of football and photography that led him to Scotland where he documented the social influence of the beautiful game across the whole of the country. It was a journey and profound experience that would inspire his adventures into other cultures.

Toby began a voyage of discovery into worlds that so many of us often turn a blind eye to. He travelled to Buenos Aires, where he walked amongst beggars, prostitutes, street vendors, workers, and the homeless, learning about their lives.

He shone his lens on maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, child labour in Bolivia and the Favelas of Rio De Janeiro.

His projects also gave a face to the effects of genocide in Kurdistan, women in Kabul and refugees seeking a new life in Germany.

“I don’t want to romanticise or dramatise things when I photograph in these areas,” explains Toby, but I do want to awaken a certain empathy in the viewer of my photos for the lives of these people.”

It is hard not to be moved or affected by Toby’s work. Each image tells a story and provokes emotion. We are invited into the world of those he captures and are left to create a narrative of the life they have led. It’s the power of photography.

Toby’s work has seen him spend almost two decades documenting the daily life of teenagers in British working-class communities. After the Brexit referendum, he decided to focus his work on Belfast in Northern Ireland.

There was a serious concern that the final implementation of Brexit would threaten the Peace Agreement of 1998 that ended the armed conflict between Protestant Unionists and Catholic Nationalists who live in similar neighbourhoods that to this day are still divided by walls.

The images of his project “Youth of Belfast” accompanied teenagers in six different Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods throughout Belfast, providing an intimate and immediate insight into the daily lives of a whole generation. Toby’s photo essay depicted the effects of unemployment, drug crime, and violence afflicting Belfast’s youth, whether they live on one side of the “Peace Wall” or the other.

Toby’s exploration of life in Northern Ireland would form his first book ‘Wee Muckers–Youth of Belfast’ which was published in March 2019.

Since then he has returned to these areas around Belfast, becoming a familiar face and a friend to many, witnessing how life has changed for some, and been lost for others.

“As I have been working on this project for so long now, mostly in the same neighbourhoods. I have photographically accompanied so many teenagers on their path to adulthood.”

It is a project that remains close to Toby’s heart, and one he could never have imagined embarking on whilst growing up in Germany with ideas of one day running out on the hallowed turf of the MHP Arena.

Football, of course, remains his number-one love, which at times has brought its own difficulties.

“As a VfB Stuttgart fan, we’ve suffered a lot in recent years, but we’ve celebrated preventing relegation on the last matchday more than Bayern Munich has celebrated any of their last 10 championships!”

It was an absolute pleasure for The Atlantic Dispatch to sit down with Toby as he spoke about football, his life behind the lens and the importance of photography.

THE PRESENCE OF FOOTBALL IN DAILY LIFE WAS FASCINATING

I always say I’m half Scottish and half Argentinian, but only because I love the countries and have lived in both for a while.

I grew up in a protected but kind of boring middle-class environment in the suburbs of Stuttgart.

The VfB stadium was close by and as I had played football from when I could walk, my dream as a boy was always to play for VfB one day.

Some of my friends tried it, but in the end, I only made it to the higher amateur leagues. So football was my absolute No. 1 passion, photography came much later when I studied graphic design at the art academy and realised that I was just a street dog and wanted to experience the stories myself and not just lay them out!

The combination of football and photography led me to Scotland, as I was absolutely fascinated by the passion and enthusiasm of the Scots for football! (hey, many years before most Germans now perceive it that way during the Euros).

So I’ve done a huge body of work on the Scots and football as my degree. I photographed all the stadiums and captains of the SPL teams like Scott M Thomsen at Dunfermline and Berti Vogts at Hampden Park!) but also the kids who played in the streets and yards of Sighthill, Maryhill or Niddrie.

This presence of football in daily life was fascinating and the enthusiasm that does not depend on success is what football is what it is all about for me.

MORE SIMILAR THAN THEY WOULD LIKE TO ADMIT

The Wee Muckers project began in 2017 after the Brexit referendum. The idea was to show the historical division that was also reflected in the voting behaviour in the referendum. Although people’s everyday lives are very similar.

I focused on the young people again, as they were not allowed to vote, but will have to bear the consequences.

These two communities in Belfast who seem to have irreconcilable differences, are more similar than they’d both like to admit.

While they still stick to their own symbols of their identity and tradition, they wear the same clothes, have the same haircuts, listen to the same music, drink the same beer, take the same drugs and often have the same worries such as violence, unemployment, social discrimination and therefore, lack of prospects.

IN THOSE MOMENTS I’M NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER ANY MORE, JUST A VERY SAD PERSON

As I have been working on this project for so long now, mostly in the same neighbourhoods, I have photographically accompanied so many teenagers on their path to adulthood, met their families and made real friends.

Some of them really moved me deeply personally. On my last trip, I had lunch with the mother of a girl I photographed in 2018 who took her own life. In those moments I’m not a photographer any more, just a very sad person.

On the same trip, I met a boy from the same group of teenagers from back then. He is now expecting his third child. The whole range of deepest grief and great joy within a few years, and a few hundred metres.

Maybe that’s why I keep coming back. I’ve found that people have really appreciated my work and the book.

PHOTOGRAPHY IS TOO IMPORTANT AND POWERFUL FOR THAT

At the beginning of a project, you never know how people will react to you and what you are doing. Especially when you’re working with minors. But from the start, I’ve felt a lot of trust through my openness and honesty. That has grown over the years.

People appreciate the fact that you come back and bring them their photos. They see that you are investing time and sense whether you are really interested or just take pictures and disappear.

The trust that has grown over the years is an opportunity for a lot of closeness but also a responsibility to live up to it. To tell the stories, to draw attention to things. To use the power of photography.

This is despite the fact that a good friend once jokingly said he believes that I go out without film in the camera and only use it as a means to get in touch with people…that was never the case, because photography is too important and powerful for that. But perhaps there is a spark of truth in it.