Kittens, Cigarettes and Gucci

"I never like to photograph anyone without getting to know them first, except for this one time… On one of my many trips to Ireland, working on my long-term project called Growing up Travelling about the inside world of Irish Travellers, I was walking along the main road in a small town in Ireland with my Leica SL, and saw these three Traveller girls sitting at the bus stop with their grandmother. I saw the girls looking at me exactly as they are in this photograph. It stopped me in my tracks. Their sassy little attitudes blew my mind. I said to the grandmother, “Can I please take a photograph of these girls?” She said to me, “As long as I am not in it and you send it to me on Facebook.” And so I did. And then began the next 6 years of friendship with these 3 little girls watching them grow up. By the way, neither the kittens, cigarettes or Gucci are real."