Nowhere people: making the invisible, visible

This context statement presents a critical examination of my work as a documentary photographer, focusing on the long-term project Nowhere People (2005-2016). It reveals as well the impact statelessness has on individuals and communities around the world. Given the interdisciplinary nature of this topic, the statement will employ methods of auto-ethnography as well as theories of state, human rights, memory and identity in order to illustrate the significance of the visual in articulating the lives of stateless populations.
This statement attempts to connect my own experience and journey of working in the field of documentary photography with the growing discussion and debate related to the state, human rights, nationality and the rights of non-citizens. I will demonstrate how this portfolio of public works presents a multidimensional portrait of this issue in a way that contributes to filling in substantial evidence gaps in the context of human rights by making the various elements of this invisible condition, visible. In addition, I will survey photography’s capacity to translate deficiencies inherent within human rights and international law and examine its role in challenging contemporary definitions of citizenship and identity.
I will discuss how I have navigated my work and the project Nowhere People through debates related to subjectivity, agency, representation, spectatorship and the interconnectedness between photographer, subject and viewer. I will also detail the pragmatic decisions I have made relating to the authorship and dissemination of the work to various audiences in relation to the tectonic shift in the access to information and use of the image within this shifting paradigm of visual culture.