Visual artist Tina Remiz (pictured) today launched a mission to help some of the world’s poorest people. She will photograph, film and record the voices of Zambians – many of whom lost their jobs through austerity measures – who now struggle to survive on little more than £1 a day as market vendors and street traders. War on Want - the charity that supports these Zambians - will use her material in campaigns which press British and foreign ministers for policies which put the poor before multinational companies’ profits. Tina, 24, who lives in London’s Bromley-by-Bow, said: “I am not only excited about this commission, but feel lucky for a chance to do a story on a subject which is both important and under-represented in the media.”

Press Release

Tina fights poverty – with camera

Visual artist Tina Remiz today launches a mission in which she will apply her craft to help some of the world’s poorest people.

She has left a country reeling from recession for another where millions continue to suffer from decades-long cuts.

Tina will photograph, film and record the voices of Zambians – many of whom lost their jobs through austerity measures – who now struggle to survive on little more than £1 a day as market vendors and street traders.

War on Want - the charity that supports these Zambians - will use her material in campaigns which press British and foreign ministers for policies which put the poor before multinational companies’ profits.

Tina won the charity’s Document competition for the photography that best portrayed harsh economic times.

The images came from a return to her native Latvia,  where large numbers of the unemployed face a grim future.

Like Britons, citizens in the Baltic nation have suffered from global bankers’ policies that caused the 2008 crash.

In the 70s, as prices for Zambia’s vital earner copper plunged, World Bank advice saw heavy reductions in health and education spending, besides most state-owned service companies privatised, which brought huge job losses.

The proportion of Zambians living in poverty has rocketed from a low four per cent to more than half, with average life expectancy at 39 among the lowest anywhere round the globe.

War on Want backs the Zambia Informal Economy Associations, which promote rights for vendors and traders, ensure participation in community and national development, as well as policy formulation, and provide training.

Tina, 24, who lives in London’s Bromley-by-Bow, said: “I am not only excited about this commission, but feel lucky for a chance to do a story on a subject which is both important and under-represented in the media.

“It also gives me a lot of creative freedom to approach the commission the way I want and to be involved in every stage of the production.”

Tina studied for a Batchelor of Arts degree in media practice at the University of the West of England in Bristol.

She graduated with a BA in Photographic Arts at the University of Westminster in between the two and took a journalism course with another London educational centre, the Catch-22 Academy.

Tina added: “My background is in visual arts. As a teenager I was planning to be a painter or a graphic designer.

“However, I started to feel that my work was too disconnected from real life and became interested in documentary, rather than fine art practice.

“I applied to study media at university and later specialised in photography, as it allowed me to speak about the questions I wanted to address in a language I knew best - visual language.

“Now, I go through a reverse process, bringing elements of sound, written work and moving image to my work. But photography remains at the core of my practice.”

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