Uğur Gallenkuş, a digital artist based in Istanbul, creates poignant collages that starkly illustrate the disparities between different corners of the globe. By juxtaposing images from diverse realities, the artist sheds light on the myriad challenges faced by today’s children—ranging from poverty and hunger to child trafficking. Addressing a fundamental question that resonates universally—’What legacy are we leaving for the world’s children?’—Uğur challenges viewers to confront these pressing issues.
Driven by a deep sense of injustice, Uğur embarked on a significant endeavor: the publication of a book titled ‘Parallel Universes of Children.’ This powerful volume draws on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children, established in 1990, as its foundation. Through 50 meticulously crafted collages, the book communicates the fundamental rights every child deserves, irrespective of their circumstances or geographical location. Each collage embodies one of the U.N.-defined rights of children, accompanied by stark statistics that underscore the urgent realities endangering children worldwide.
Uğur envisions his book as a catalyst for change, urging adults to transcend their greed and egos. His heartfelt dedication echoes throughout: ‘This book is dedicated to all children in the world: whether poor or rich, residing in developed or undeveloped countries, educated or uneducated, hungry or obese, living or deceased. This book is a CALL TO ACTION!’ Through his compelling visual narratives, Uğur seeks to inspire a collective awakening, compelling us all to work towards a better world for the children of today.
Scroll down and inspire yourself. Please check Ugur’s Instagram for more amazing work.
You can find more info about Uğur Gallenkuş:
#1
Photo by Mehmet Aslan
“This little boy’s father Munzir lost his right leg when a bomb was dropped as he walked through a bazaar in Idlib, Syria. His son Mustafa was born without lower or upper limbs due to tetra-amelia, a congenital disorder caused by the medications his mother Zeynep had to take after being sickened by nerve gas released during the war in Syria.”
#2
Photo by Adem Altan
“Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, close to the quake’s epicentre, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the Turkey’s southeast, on February 7, 2023.”
#3
Photo by Andrew Quilty
“Rabia poses in the International Committee of the Red Cross’s orthopedic center in Jalalabad, Afghanistan on August 26, 2018, her first day wearing a prosthetic. Asked if she could stand without crutches, Rabia let them fall to the ground.”
#4
Photo by Jerome Delay
“In this Friday, March 31, 2017 photo, Vickie, 4, holds a hairbrush in her mouth as she walks in the Kuluba, Uganda, transit camp.”
#5
Photo by Wissam Nassar
“Noha Abu Mesleh, 5 years old, is seen inside of her home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.There have 8 refugee camps in Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip is home to a population of approximately 1.9 million people, including some 1.4 million Palestine refugees.”
#6
Photo by Allison Joyce
“12 year old Kurshida holds her drawing at a CODEC and UNICEF “child friendly space” on September 21, 2017 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Kurshida fled to Bangladesh from Bourashidapara village in Myanmar almost a month ago. Her drawing depicts a scene that she witnessed while fleeing her village; the military shooting everywhere, lighting her home on fire, the military cutting her niece’s throat with a machete while she slept, her newborn sister being shot, a helicopter dropping bombs, and her neighbors being shot while they tried to flee.”
#7
Photo by Necati Savaş
“A man holds the body of his daughter who died in the earthquake, after her body was retrieved from a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, southeastern Turkiye, 07 February 2023.”
#8
Photo by Ivan Valencia
“A guacamaya rescued from illegal traffickers rests in a wildlife rehabilitation center in Colombia. A merchant had cut the bird’s beak so it could not defend itself.”
#9
Photo by Justin Hofman
“A small estuary seahorse, Hippocampus kuda, drifts in the polluted waters near Sumbawa Besar, Sumbara Island, Indonesia in 2016.”
#10
Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff
“Children stand on a beach wrapped in emergency blankets shortly after arriving with other migrants and refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey, on October 14, 2015.”
#11
Photo by Ammar Sulaiman
“Smoke billows following a reported air strike by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held parts of the Jobar district, on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, on August 9, 2017.”
#12
Photo by John Moore
“Haitian immigrants cross the Rio Grande back into Mexico from Del Rio, Texas on September 20, 2021 to Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. As U.S. immigration authorities began deporting immigrants back to Haiti from Del Rio, thousands more waited in a camp under an international bridge in Del Rio and others crossed the river back into Mexico to avoid deportation.”
#13
Photo by Léo Malafaia
“A boy walks out of the sea while removing oil spilled on Itapuama beach located in the city of Cabo de Santo Agostinho, Pernambuco state, Brazil, on October 21, 2019.”
#14
Photo by Alessandro Penso
“Youssef, an 11-year-old from Syria, works in a textiles factory in Gaziantep, Turkey, on April 25, 2017. He is the eldest of five children; he starts work at 8 a.m. and leaves at 7 p.m., earning around $150 a month.”
#15
Photo by Alexis Huguet
Collaboration between Uğur Gallenkuş and Doctors Without Borders (#MSF)
“In northeastern of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Ituri province, new spikes in violence forced more than 1 million people to flee their villages in December 2017. Today, hundreds of thousands of displaced people are staying with host families or in informal settlements that are not secure, like Rhoe camp.”
#16
Photo by Anna Surinyach
Collaboration between Uğur Gallenkuş and Doctors Without Borders (#MSF)
“Three women bring water to an IDP camp in Melut, South Sudan in 2014. In this region where fighting continues, access to #water is a daily challenge. Safe water supply and proper wastewater treatment protect people from waterborne diseases like #cholera. In the health facilities where we work, we ensure hygiene and good supply practices.”
#17
Photo by Ahmad Jarrah
“Flames seen from the forest fires a region called Chapada dos Veadeiros, in the city of Goiás, a few kilometers from the federal capital Brasília in Brazil in September, 2021.”
#18
Photo by Frederick Dharshie Wissah
“A young boy is drinking dirty water due to a lack of water points in Kakamega in Kenya on March 14, 2018, which has occurred due to deforestation.”
#19
Photo by Wissam Nassar
“Children from the Al Atawna family are sit amid the rubble of their destroyed house which was damaged during last war of 2014, in the Al-Shejaeiya neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City, Gaza Strip.”
#20
Photo by Paul Hilton
“A young elephant walks outside a veterinary outpost run by the veterinary society for Sumatran wildlife conservation – an Indonesian organization that provides services to captive elephants kept in government-run elephant training centers. This elephant is being rehabilitated after its mother was poisoned on a palm oil plantation in the Leuser ecosystem.”
#21
Photo by Yasin Akgül
“A Syrian schoolgirl crossing through a damaged wall outside her school in the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab on March 25, 2015.”
#22
Photo by Carolina Rapezzi
“Rashida is a water merchant, selling water mainly in the burning areas in Accra, Ghana in 2018.”
#23
Photo by Amer Almohibany
“A Syrian government forces’ a fighter-bomber drops a payload during a reported air strike in the rebel-held area of Qabun, east of the capital Damascus, on May 6, 2017.”
#24
Photo by Hugues Robert
Collaboration between Uğur Gallenkuş and Doctors Without Borders (#MSF)
“A staff member getting dressed in full personal protection at the Ebola treatment center in Bikoro, Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2018.”
#25
Photo by Aleksey Filippov/AFP via Getty Images
Collaboration between Uğur Gallenkuş and WHO Foundation (#WHOFoundation)
“A patient stands in a hospital destroyed as a result of shelling between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on July 19, 2015.”
#26
Photo by Luca Sola
Collaboration between Uğur Gallenkuş and Doctors Without Borders (#MSF)
“In 2015, In the aftermath of the floods in Nsanje district, the southern region of Malawi, 7-year-old Alesi Phiri walks through a field looking at the thick layer of dried mud covering it.”
#27
Photo by Noorullah Shirzada
“Afghan children work at a coal yard on the outskirts of Jalalabad on April 28, 2018.”
#28
Photo by Allison Joyce
“Hands of refugees stretch out as they scramble for donations in the Balukhali camp on September 18, 2017 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.”
Photo by Richard Heathcote
“Players of the USA lift the Women’s World Cup Trophy following the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup France Final match between The United States of America and The Netherlands at Stade de Lyon on July 07, 2019 in Lyon, France.”
#29
Photo courtesy of US National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office
“The 11-megaton ROMEO Event was part of Operation Castle. It was detonated from a barge near Bikini atoll on 26 March 1954.”
#30
Photo by Patryk Jaracz
“On July 27, 2022, A Grad Rocket launcher operated by Ukrainian defence forces on wheat fields near city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine which Russian army keeps trying to capture until this day.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian exports of grain have been severely disrupted. For over four months, Russian military vessels have been blocking Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea.
On 22 July 2022, an agreement was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to open a safe maritime humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea (the Black Sea Grain Initiative). Since then, over 500 ships full of grain and other foodstuffs have left three Ukrainian ports: Chornomorsk, Odesa and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi.
While unblocking the sea export route has helped to address the global food security crisis and lower grain prices, the export backlogs remain significant. via the European Council
In 2020, Ukraine exported $4.61B in Wheat, making it the 5th largest exporter of Wheat in the world. At the same year, Wheat was the 3rd most exported product in Ukraine. The main destination of Wheat exports from Ukraine are: Egypt ($1.22B), Indonesia ($544M), Pakistan ($496M), Bangladesh ($295M), and Lebanon ($239M). via OEC – The Observatory of Economic Complexity”