If the world wasn't so big, we would all feel closer to one another.

In world that has become so interconnected, how have we not grown closer to one another? We know more about what’s happening around us that we ever did, yet we’re as far apart from one another as we’ve ever been, more aware of our differences than what we have in common. Our circle of friends remains small and close.

We take comfort here. Everyone does, and for all the same reasons. This is where life feels like home, where we are loved and are loving, protected and protective. We care for the people we know and the things we can see for as far as our arms and eyes can reach. Beyond this, no one is to blame for who or what is left outside the circle of our embrace. Anyone who needs us, or who has something to teach us, will learn to live without us. Everything we make of life and discover about being in this world, will arise from what’s within our reach, however small and close.

The thread of emotion upon which these photographs hang together are the quiet, unguarded moments of feeling at ease.

A photograph isn’t going to change anything. A portrait of someone we do not know from a place we’ve never been isn’t going to tell us anything we can’t already imagine for ourselves. But a gallery of portraits, surrounding us with people from around the world, might just be able to stretch far and wide enough to reveal the obvious: we are all longing to feel at home in the life we live, regardless of where we are or the conditions we face or the things we believe. More than this, none of the photographs are newsworthy; they have not been taken during extraordinary times that so often influence the way we see and learn of others. These are photographs of ordinary, everyday life, and the thread of emotion upon which they hang together are the quiet, unguarded moments of feeling at ease. These portraits, surrounding us in a gallery, are how our lives might look if we were all standing together.

Some of the photographs in this growing body of work will be more challenging than others. Life can be hard. Not all beauty looks the same. It’s understandable to question whether photographs like these belong within the project’s theme or wonder how anyone could ever find a way to feel at ease in life. But if and when they do, and for however long those moments last, their photograph will become less about their circumstance and more about a remarkable accomplishment that we, standing in their place, can barely imagine achieving for ourselves.

You will also notice that many of these photographs are from less prosperous, developing nations. It so happens that these are the places where finding beauty in everyday life became the guiding force of this project. In her early travels, intent on photographing the colour palette of the world, Annie Tong set out to learn about different cultures and ways of life. The economic hardships she discovered were more prominent and persistent than she ever imagined they would be and soon weighted heavy enough on her to change course. But rather than step back, she moved closer, engaging more deliberately with the people she met, sharing meals and exchanging stories of one another’s lives. Nations became neighbourhoods. Strangers became friends. Photographs of the world abroad became portraits of people she had grown to admire.