Documenting the European migrant crisis from the inside
- Text by Miss Rosen
In 2016, more than one million people fled Asia, Africa and the Middle East to arrive in Europe. It was a continent largely unprepared (or unwilling) to take on the challenges of helping refugees and migrants adjust to life in a new land. While the news was filled with devastating images of sunken ships, sick children and desolate camps, few of the individual stories behind the headlines ever reached the outside world.
When invited to curate an exhibition to East Wing, a photography platform founded in Qatar, Artistic Director Peggy Sue Amison decided it was time “to uncover the ignorance.” This led to In Transit, a multidisciplinary group exhibition of artists including George Awde, Daniel Castro Garcia, Gohar Dashti, Tanya Habjouqa, and Stefanie Zofia Schulz — who themselves are refugees, immigrants, and first-generation citizens.
In Transit takes us to Germany, Jordan, Lebanon, Italy, and Iran to look at the day-to-day lives of men, women, and children trying to survive in a foreign, often hostile world. “We’re not trying to solve a problem,” Amison explains. “The exhibition gives these migrants a face and puts the viewer in their position in an intimate way.”
Tanya Habjouqa, from the series Tomorrow There will be Apricots
Gohar Dashti, from the series Sateless
This sense of intimacy, of knowing the subjects as one knows their family and friends, is an extension of the artists’ dedication and commitment to their subjects. Photographer Stefanie Zofia Schulz, for example, was born in a displacement camp in southern Germany.
“Her mother is Polish, so she was allowed to emigrate,” Amison says. “Now Schulz is photographing children living through her same fate, spending up to 15 years of their lives in these camps. This is the only place they have ever known, even though it’s not where they are from.”
Stefanie Zofia Schulz, from the series Duldung/ Tolerance
“Stephanie’s work is about waiting. You see it in the children, this idea of not being able to move forward. The series is titled is Toleration. That’s what it says on their passport. They are ‘tolerated’ and at any point, they can be sent back and are no longer ‘tolerated.’”
With In Transit, the faceless, nameless masses are revealed: as men, women, and children: “We all want the same things: a safe place to live, a good life for their family, and a chance to grow, to be of service and have a happy and productive life, wherever they are living.”
George Awde, from the series Beirut
George Awde, from the series Beirut
Stefanie Zofia Schulz, from the series Duldung/ Tolerance
Tanya Habjouqa, from the series Tomorrow There will be Apricots
Gohar Dashti, from the series Sateless
In Transit is on view at San Francisco Camerawork from January 24-March 15, 2019.
Follow Miss Rosen on Twitter.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
Glasgow’s Calabash is the restaurant the African diaspora call home
Home Cooking — Having been open in the heart of the city for 15 years, the Kenyan rooted eatery has become a community staple for migrants and Scottish-born locals alike.
Written by: Lisa Maru
Andrea Modica’s 40 year long Italian Story
Storia — The Italian American photographer first ventured to her ancestral country in 1987, beginning a decades long exploration and documentation of it.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Exploring Bucovina, the last wild place in Europe
Noroc! — 70% of Romania’s northern provinces are covered in ancient woodland, with its people cultivating a close relationship with the land that stretches back millennia. Jack Burke forages, eats and drinks his way around the region.
Written by: Jack Burke
War & Pieces: The race to become the world’s fastest jigsaw puzzler
The Obsessives — The UK Jigsaw Puzzle Championships see contestants turn a cosy pastime into a high stakes battleground, as they race to complete 500-piece puzzles in as little time as possible. It’s as much a feat of athleticism as cognitive quickness, reports Ginnia Cheng.
Written by: Ginnia Cheng
Why is the Met Police using EsDeeKid for ‘copaganda’?
Slop Enforcement — Among the AI slop and ragebait of late-stage social media, newsletter columnist Emma Garland has noticed a jarring trend – London’s police force appropriating criminalised subcultures for engagement purposes.
Written by: Emma Garland
A stark, confronting window into the global cocaine trade
Sangre Blanca — Mads Nissen’s new book is a close-up look at various stages of the drug’s journey, from production to consumption, and the violence that follows wherever it goes.
Written by: Isaac Muk
