Asma

Students, engineers, bird keepers, families, children and journalists. They all fled war or social instability and found shelter in Europe. This idealistic place, as they were imagining it, is supposed to be their new home, a home that comes with both comfort and struggle. Many of them are still waiting for their asylum approval, while learning new languages, adapting themselves and embracing a different way of life. Shadows of what pushed them towards leaving their homes still persist, being in contrast with this new chapter of their life which they have not chosen. This fresh start in Europe is their hope for a comeback to being treated with the decency demanded for a normal life.

Built up in Salzburg, Austria, the project represents a photographic immersion into the regrettable events that these people have experienced, but also an acknowledgement of the ordinary life that they used to live before any social or political crisis. For most of them this normality and stability is the aim that they endeavor to reach after resettling. ‘Asma’ project brings together a series of ‘networked’ images that still exist thanks to internet and social media, taken by refugees on phones or cameras that were left back home or drowned in the sea. In addition, the portraits seek to imply the individuality and importance of every human being facing this situation, stepping away from stereotypical representations of ‘groups of X migrants’.