Kyrgyzstan – Represented by Panos Pictures, Japanese photojournalist Noriko Hayashi has worked in diverse regions around the world, including Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Japan and Gambia. Her work, though journalistic in style, is more personal, going into the lives of her subjects in a very sensitive, poignant way. She has worked on issues ranging from the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster to the practice of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan. Her work often deals with the human side of tragedy, and the resilience of people to live with hope.   Emaho: You stumbled upon photography almost by chance while you were still a university student working in Gambia. What inspired you to take up photography as a full time career? NH: I was studying Peace & Conflict studies and International Politics at university. During my 3rd year in 2006, I had the opportunity to visit Gambia in West Africa with other students and my professor of African politics, as an induction course. Although the course was only for 3 weeks, I decided to stay in Gambia after other students left the country. At that time, I wanted to work for an NGO or humanitarian organization in the future. So in order to gain some practical experience, I started to work at a local elementary school as volunteer staff. But I also wanted to do other things in order to know more about the country (information I could get from TV, radio and newspaper was limited in Gambia). I thought it would be easier to just work at a local newspaper. Also I knew that there was tension between the government and media in Gambia, so I wanted to know how local journalists felt about working as a reporter in the country. Even though I didn’t have any skills or experience working at media at that time, I just visited a Gambian independent newspaper called The Point, without making any appointment, and asked the editor in chief if I could work at the newspaper. Then he asked me, “So, what can you do for us”. Then I was thinking, ‘omg I can’t do anything…’ I didn’t have the confidence to write stories in English for the paper. So I just said, “Maybe I can take pictures for you”, although my level of photography …