Tarahumara Legs

How sport and play give insight into our condition humaine is the common thread in Human Playground. With her research project, Belgian photographer Hannelore Vandenbussche (°1981, lives and works in Amsterdam) captures original sports from all over the world. This resulted not only in autonomous creations, but also in a coffee table book for TeNeues and a documentary series on Netflix. For instance, she portrays the festive competition between the best endurance runners in the world - the Tarahumara tribe in northern Mexico, shows how people in Lagos forget their miserable living conditions during a game of Dambe and takes the viewer into the fascinating world of eagle hunters in Mongolia. How sport and play connect us, and give insight into our human essence, is what drives her. That is why she always looks for profound, social stories that show how sport and play can promote emancipation.