Anyone hearing the name of Soweto immediately thinks of poverty, dust, crime and AIDS. This is the image that is constantly stoked by the media. Jodi Bieber wanted to show Soweto as it is today – a place where people have homes, where they do their shopping and go about their everyday tasks. She wanted to undermine the stereotypes and reveal the cosmopolitan townships as their residents themselves experience them.

In Spain needle sharing by drug users is one of the leading means of HIV and AIDS transmission. Without a social safety net, in addition to coping with their illness the infected addicts are also victims of social exclusion. As an African, Jodi Bieber was surprised that this practice is also to be found in the rich West. She steeped herself in their situation, made still worse by the poor quality of the drugs. Nevertheless, LAS CANAS is primarily about the addicts themselves: the sort of people from whom we avert our eyes on a daily basis, afraid as we are of recognising ourselves in our neighbours. Like Bieber's photographs, their stories are coloured by sadness, loss and loneliness. The users come from all over the world, but have one thing in common: drugs. It is their vulnerability to that one temptation that makes them different from us.