My Room Project

John Thackwray is a talented 30-year-old photographer and filmmaker who was born in South Africa and currently based in Paris, France. For his series “My Room Project”, John travels world to document how youth live their lives. He spent four years of his life visiting the rooms of the 80’s generation from 55 countries, hundreds of rooms, millions and billions of meetings and memories. Thackwray has travelled across Europe, North America, Central and East Asia, covering places like Germany, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Japan, Russia, among others.

“The concept is simple: photographing young men and women who were born in the 80’s and 90’s, in the places they sleep, all around the world, and interviewing them about lifestyle, local issues, education, religion, or love,” he says.

John Thackwray sets the camera on the ceiling of every single room, so the whole view of the room can be presented clearly. The owner of the room sits in the center of the room and looks at the camera on the ceiling. The expressions in their eyes and smiles are telling that they are very proud to display their room.

“At that time it was just a hobby, a different way of travelling. It was also a way to meet people, and it was just basically to see how people of my age live in all those countries,” John says.

All these photographs are a testimony to the world that surrounds us. Combining visual anthropology and social photography, this conscious project make us aware of the diversity of lifestyles, destruction of our traditions and the rise of inequalities.

– John Thackwray

Room #24 – Joseph, Paris, France

Room #192 – Andreea, Bucharest, Romania

Room #205 – Gulle, Istanbul, Turkey

Room #256 – Ryoko, Tokyo, Japan

Room #290 – Yuan, Dali, China

Room #326 – Nikesh, Mumbai, India

Room #416 – Oleg, Nobosibirsk, Russia

Room #583 – Amara, Chihuahua, Mexico

Room #711 – Claudio, Rio, Brazil