Here's just a few of the hundreds of shots that The Afflicted Yard has been steadily capturing and collating; in the process, building a fascinating, beautiful and unflinching portrait of a country through a website made up of a series of images, stories, perspectives and personal experience. Behind it all is Peter Dean Rickards; photographer, writer and astute observer.

Hailing from Jamaica; a nation he describes as 'living within and without cultural control', Peter Dean Rickards' photographic work spans a bewilderingly complete range of subjects, encompassing stunning natural landscapes, architecture, fashion, social documentation, and portraits of ordinary Jamicans and celebrities alike.

This is a body of work excecuted with a keen eye and a resolutely Jamaican point of view. The cliches you might expect to see are present, (the guns, the weed, the tropical views) but there is a breadth and depth to Rickard's subjects that makes this a much more accurate, and much more engaging picture than a stereotype showcase.

Rickards is currently in New York for a while - M.E. can't wait to see what his lens picks out of the Big Apple...