#053kids by Toby Binder

Germany is a supposedly rich industrial country, and yet one in five children lives in poverty; in areas such as Duisburg-Hochfeld this increases to more than every second child. In an environment where different communities mix and criminal gangs sometimes clash, there is a daily struggle for legal and illegal resources. Prostitution, drugs and arms trafficking show the supposedly fast money that can be made, and make growing up here difficult.

My long-term documentary project is about teenage life, social injustice, identity and belonging. The kids I photograph often don’t know their parents’ home country and nor do they feel accepted in Germany, so they use the digits 053 from the postcode of Duisburg-Hochfeld for identification instead. These are the 053kids.