Notes

'Las Canas (The Reeds) is a rubbish dump on the outskirts of Valencia in Spain. About 100 people live there and about 1000 people frequent it every day. Five Euros is everything in Las Canas – it can buy you drugs or sex. I was working on a photographic project exploring the relationship between drugs and HIV/Aids in Spain. I hung out in the rubbish dump for months, going in everyday with an NGO that supplies clean needles, tin foil, condoms and coffee to the drug addicts and I got to know all the regulars. That is how I got to know Cristino. No other photographer has explored this world. The Liberians used the drugs and the women and the Ghanians saw it as a way to make money to get to London. Even though the police were part of the landscape, working there was unpredictable and I had moments of being threatened. It was like a Big Brother house on drugs and everyone was shafting each other in some way or another to survive and get lots of five Euros to keep up with their drug needs. Crazy as it sounds ... it was one of the great experiences in my life so far.'

Jodie Bieber, 2 October, 2014