Lost Innocence

Bran created the 'Lost Innocence’ AK-47 sculpture art piece in 2015, when he returned from his travels from Sierra Leone. He quoted “it was one of the most difficult trips I had made”

The messages on the love heart sweets are taken from extracts when Bran interviewed the child soldiers in Sierra Leone. He asked them what they were doing, why they were there, who would they die for?

There were roughly 10,000-14,000 children who fought between 1991 and 2002 in the Sierra Leone Civil War. Children fought on both sides of the conflict. Nearly half of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and a quarter of the government armed forces consisted of children aged 8–14 years old and the AK-47 was the prominent weapon used in Sierra Leone.

Bran photographed these young boys and at the time he had nothing to give them but these heart sweets he happened to have in his pocket at the time, and it was from their words and the visuals which Bran captured on his camera that made him create the 'Love Heart' Collection. A contrast between real words and the loss of innocence, these young soldiers were robbed of their childhood and forced to fight a war.

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