'Tyson Fury inspired me to visit traveller community where I learnt a huge lesson'

Stumbling across At Home with the Furys one day when he was browsing through the TV schedules, Berlin photographer Frederik Ruegger was transfixed. A massive boxing fan, Gypsy King Tyson Fury gave a snapshot of his life and heritage as part of the Traveller community. Frederik, 32, was so fascinated that he booked a flight to Manchester and made his way to the famous Appleby Horse Fair - Europe's largest annual gathering for Gypsy and Traveller communities held in Cumbria every June - armed with his trusty 28mm camera. Passing a table laid out as a CD stall, he heard a traditional folk song ‘I’m a Stranger in this Country’ playing and decided it was the perfect title for an extraordinary book of photographs, shot over two years between 2022 and 2024, at horse fairs in the UK and Ireland.Horror warning over 'unsafe' vitamin supplements which ignore NHS guidelinesHe says: “I have a huge interest in boxing. I admire Tyson Fury a lot, not only for his sport, but also for his personality. A Stranger in This Country seemed like a good title, as Travellers can I think feel a bit like that…and so was I.”The only German photographer, the Traveller families took to him and he made numerous visits to the fairs, saying: “I grew close with one specific family that also invited me to stay with them on the campsite. I'm shooting with a 28 millimetre lens, which is a wide angle lens, so you need to be very close to your subject. I was allowed to take pictures whenever I wanted and everything was as natural as possible. People kind of forgot that I was still there.“I feel honoured to have captured their world. It’s their world, I was just the one framing it, but it belongs to the traveller community. My proudest moment was getting to know and be trusted by all these wonderful people.” I am a Stranger in This Country by Frederik Ruegger is published by Kehrer Verlag and available from all good bookshops.