Meet The Flying Star amputee football teams making waves in Sierra Leone

The project aimed to "get across some small sense of the trauma the players have experienced in their lives, by using several in-camera techniques to achieve this" such as "lens diopters and slow shutter speeds to create ghosting and jarring effects within the image that alludes to the trauma and ghosts of their past experiences".

The civil war in Sierra Leone lasted from 1991 to 2002 and killed more than 50,000 people and left countless others without legs or arms. Antony wanted to depict the resilience and strength that occupies that part of the world with this mesmerising series.

He pictured the captain of The Flying Stars team in front of a blazing fire. The image is at once powerful, with its rich hues dancing off the page and the look on Umaru Sandi's (the captain) holding you to the spot.

Antony tells Creative Boom: "My projects over the last seven or so years have been focused on little-known groups or subcultures. Ordinary people that lead extraordinary lives in their way and who have a story to tell. The Flying Stars are the absolute epitome of that. They have experienced huge adversity from a young age and have grown from that with the strength and resilience that few could claim to have. It's exactly this that I wanted to capture in the images of them, as well as showcasing the incredible athletes that they are."

On shooting the individual players, he tells us: "There's a quiet strength and resilience (among them), as well as emotional pain that seems to reside just below the surface in each of the players. You sense it in the conversations and quieter moments that we spent together."

He continues: "It's truly hard to wrap your head around what they have experienced in their lives. But there's also so much joy and camaraderie between them all when they're together. And that is part of what football provides them, a space where they can be with their fellow amputees who understand and relate to both their physical and emotional pain. Amputees have been viewed very negatively in certain parts of their society, so having that outlet is massively important for them."

Each portrait looks surreal and ephemeral, and the colours lend themselves to surrealism. Each player stands tall, some are kicking a ball, whilst others are standing still, looking the camera dead in the eye. Antony has successfully captured a group of people that have risen from adversity by doing what they love.

On his time in Sierra Leone, Antony said: "it certainly taught me more than I ever thought I knew about what true adversity is and the ability to overcome it. And that isn't to say that everything in their lives is great now. Because it most certainly isn't. But they have come so far and achieved so much from so little."

If you want to help and get involved, you can donate to the Flying Stars GoFundMe page, which aims to provide them with crutches and spare ferrules.