British non-profit PhotoVoice asks the question: What happens when those individuals who are traditionally the subjects of documentary photography are given a camera and the chance to speak for themselves? For their recent book New Londoners: Reflections on Home PhotoVoice paired young refugees with photographer mentors and asked them to spend three months capturing their experiences on film. Eleni Stefanou spoke to Mussie Haile, an 18-year-old who fled to the UK from Eritrea:
"I haven't been alone before," says Haile, who lives in Ilford and has
secured refugee status for the following five years. While we look
through a collection of his selected photographs: an ironing board, a
bowl of pasta, a self-portrait conveying a state of pensiveness, he
explains: "I wanted to clarify my loneliness and to describe how the
way of life changes from time to time or from place to place."
That self-portrait was actually taken after Haile's first run-in with the British police, and can be seen in the gallery here. The book received an official launch at Tate Modern last month, and photographs from the project were also included in the autumn Affordable Art Fair. Brave voices, all.
