E-migrants is an ongoing project started in 2016 and is a serie of diptychs trying to portray migrants through their personal stories, as people driven by difficult situations to leave their countries in search of a better life.
E-migrants is an ongoing project started in 2016 and is a serie of diptychs trying to portray migrants through their personal stories, as people driven by difficult situations to leave their countries in search of a better life.
I asked to each person who agreed to participate, to talk to me and tell me his story in an intimate, one to one conversation.
Almost all of them changed expression and mood through the talk, as remembering and realizing in that moment all the things they went through. They became serious, sad, hungry...some started to cry. At the end, I asked if it was pos-sible to show me an object (like a picture, clothes... a bracelet...) that followed them from their home troughout the whole journey. Just few could bring something, like a pair of trousers or a ring or a t-shirt.
Only after this process I took their portrait and the photograph of their object, for those who had it.
Through asking for the object, I wanted to enhance and concretize the concept of “having nothing”. In our western way of thinking, where it’s easy to take things for granted, can we really concretize physically this concept? What does it really mean?
Through the stories, I wanted to bring out the vulnerability of these people. Who is left to survive on its own and without justice, become easily manipulated by criminal organizations and mafias.
In this way, I try to question European right wing politics, and especially Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s, about the fears and fights generated against these people.
Closing ports, refusing to land migrants and closing reception centres are forcing many migrants to go to leave in the streets. Instead of seeing them as a source for creating new jobs and opportunities even for Italian citizens, through integration plans, they’re being left on their own.
Would a person really risk his/her life through the desert, Lybia and the sea if they could have a normal one in their home?