During the autumn 2005, I travelled from Dar Es Salaam down the coast to Maputo using local transport, by road and by sea. Before I left the UK, a small idea was brewing in my head, something I was keen to put into practice. I would ask the people I met to take pictures about their daily life, partly out of curiosity, partly as a way to document their everyday aspirations and ambitions, hoping these wouldn’t be that much different than those from the people in the UK or Belgium.

So there I was the 29th of September, on a SAA flight to Dar, together with a box of 10 disposable camera’s in my hand luggage. I was already familiar with Tanzania, a country I visited for the first time in 1991. Moçambique however was a question mark to me and I didn’t very much know what to expect. My only help was the basic level Portuguese I picked up during a six month’s stay as commercials editor in Lisbon a few years ago, and a Bradt travel guide book – which soon enough would turn out to be dated to even the most basic information.

I was deeply impressed by the high quality pictures and original vision of the people in Tanzania and Moçambique, a vision without any pre-conceived ideas about the way their subject matter should look on film.

From the 8th of June onwards, I’m making an overland trip from Luanda, the Angolan capital to Maputo in Moçambique, taking with me 120 disposable cameras I’m distributing among the people I’m meeting on my way. The idea is the same as last year, this time on a larger scale. In this blog, I’m writing about my experience.

Once back home, I’ll put the pictures on the main website, and I’ll send the prints back to their makers, often people who never before had the chance to take pictures at all.