Life through a lens

A passion for capturing the human extremities of life has seen British photographer Tom Bradley banged up in a Congolese jail, stranded and sleeping in a goat hut in Togo and staying in a leprosy colony in Nepal. Charlotte Walker reports…

I can sleep anywhere,” says Tom, unsurprisingly, after spending the past decade photographing Syrian refugees, Bangladeshi LGBT rights, Armenian prisoners and leprosy patients in 14 countries.

The 33-year-old has a life less ordinary; spending half of the year overseas, with the remainder staggered between staying with friends in London and occasional breaks at his parents’ home in the Wye Valley in Gloucestershire.

Among his photographic projects, most of which centre on themes of injustice, there is one mainstay; Tom has carved a niche for himself in photographing leprosy.

“As far as I’m concerned, I will be photographing leprosy for the rest of my life,” said Tom.

“There are so many layers to this disease – biological, social and pol...