Latest news with #MichalIwanowski
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- The Guardian
Wales, a Home from Home: untold stories of Welsh global culture
Eva Gibbor, 96, came to Wales in 1939 from Saxony, Germany, on the Kindertransport to escape the Holocaust. Her parents were murdered in a concentration camp. 'I remember they used to say: 'You are in Wales now. Forget what happened.' They say it's psychological. That your brain shuts off. That was the idea – if you forgot what happened, you forgot it. And you lived a normal life.' Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Naran Patel MBE, 76, came to Wales in 1971 from Kenya, during the 'Africanisation' of Uganda and Kenya. 'We arrived in Cardiff and saw the houses. No playgrounds? We had lived in houses with verandas and everyone playing with each other. We'd never seen terraced houses. And it was cold. My wife said: 'Why have we come here?'' Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Zainab Nur, 54, born Somaliland, has lived in Cardiff all her life. 'Our teachers used to say: 'You're not going to get anywhere because you are black.' We'd tell our parents but they wouldn't believe us. When we moved to Grangetown, I remember my parents having black tar thrown against the door.' Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Michal Iwanowski, an artist and lecturer, came to Wales in 2001. His project Go Home Polish has won international acclaim. 'I first saw the graffiti 'Go Home Polish' in 2008. I remember thinking: 'I thought I was home?', because I already had lived in Wales for seven years. Suddenly I thought, 'Ah, OK, so maybe I'm not.' But who decides where your home is?' Here he is photographed at the spot he saw the 'Go Home Polish' graffiti. Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Welsh-Italian Marco Tambini, 62, runs the Express Cafe in Port Talbot. 'There was no food and no work [in Italy]. Many adults simply left. My father arrived when he was 10. His uncle had walked here [to Port Talbot] from Italy.' Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Iohanna* worked for Apple Daily and came to Wales from Hong Kong in 2023 after the introduction of the national security law. 'I wouldn't go back to Hong Kong because you don't know which day you'll get arrested. We all know that [in Hong Kong] we are living in a transparent cage, and we have no freedom any more.' (* name has been changed.) Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Brig Paul Singh, 74, came to the UK in 1981. He was the first turban-wearing officer in the Metropolitan police. 'A senior officer asked me: 'Brig Paul, would you like to keep your turban on?' I said: 'Yes, I would. My forefathers fought with you in the first and second world wars with their turbans on.'' Here, he is pictured on Aberavon beach. Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Moses Musleh Jughol came to Wales in 1972 from as-Salt, Jordan. 'Wales did very well to help somebody in need. And Wales has invested in the second generation of these refugees. It shows the humanity – and these guys will help Wales in the future.' Photographed on the Heath in Cardiff. Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Suleman Hawas, photographed in Bridgend, came to Wales in 1973 from Libya. He was the first Muslim mayor in Wales. 'When schools came to our mosque, some of the children used to ask questions like: 'Are all Muslims terrorists?' That attitude towards Muslims has changed now. Two years ago, we had the BNP party. They came in front of the mosque with big slogans saying: 'Muslims Out'. Then the people in the street came out and asked them to leave. It was fantastic.' Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Oxford-educated Jaffa Said, photographed in Pillgwenlly, was born in Newport of Somali heritage. His grandfather fought in the second world war and the Falklands war. 'Regardless of growing up in the UK and being British or Welsh you have to hold onto your ethnic roots. I have family in Somaliland and it's very important to keep that cultural and ethnic aspect.' Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Muhammed Sheddad came to Newport in 1956 and was born in Aden, Yemen. 'My grandfather, he got killed [in the war]. He carried ammunition from Dover to Dunkirk. He is buried in France. Thousands of Yemeni Arabs were killed to save your countrymen. When the war finished they tried to kick us out [of the UK]. They said they didn't want so much colour!' Sheddad is photographed in Pillgwenlly, Newport. Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Aras Ziad came to Wales in 1963. His father, Kaka Ziad, was a co-founder of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the KDP. 'It was a very nice feeling that I could express my opinion freely and legally in the UK, something I could not do in Iraq. Eventually, Wales offered me sanctuary and I have felt very safe and free. You can't ask for more.' Ziad is photographed in Penarth. Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Latifa Alanajjar from Homs, Syria, was brought to Aberystwyth, pictured, by the Red Cross in 2016. 'I did not have any idea about Wales before coming. We arrived [in Aberystwyth] at 9 or 10pm … It was raining. I love the rain. I thought: 'This is a bit like Syria.' It had the same smell. I felt a little comfortable, a little reassured.' Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain The Bondarenko family, photographed in Cyfarthfa Park, came to Merthyr Tydfil from Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2022. Natasha says: 'My husband told me that you must collect the children because the war is starting. I felt very scared – scared like an animal is scared.' Oleksandr adds: 'Military planes flew above us. It was explosions, rockets and missiles. There were air fights. We instructed the kids: 'If you hear explosions, you need to lie down and cover your heads.'' Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain Yohji Jones, 25, came to Wales in 2012 after the Tōhoku earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster. 'I remember feeling intimidated as everyone was speaking English and the school was almost triple the size. The school system was completely different too. I came from a Japanese school where everyone listened to the teacher and complied with the rules. In Cardiff the students were more 'expressive!' Photograph: Richard Jones/Vision Fountain
The Guardian
12-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Kraszna-Krausz photography book awards
Edited by curator Charlotte Flint, this book explores Tee A Corinne's radical and expansive photographic practice, offering a new perspective on her work as photographer, lesbian sex activist, educator and author. Previously unpublished photographs, slides, contact sheets and ephemera from her archive showcase the pioneering work that established Corinne as one of the foremost lesbian photographers of the late 1970s and early 1980s Khattab's project explores his year-long compulsory military service in Egypt. Apart from endless guarding hours, miles of walks everyday, caring for the ill and tending for the wounded as a doctor, he spent his time – much of it alone – on a trail around the country. 'It was one of the greatest challenges in my life; to be stripped away of my individuality' Photograph: Mahmoud Khattab Crossroads by Debsuddha, a documentary photographer based in Kolkata, India, is a visual narrative based on the lives of Debsuddha's two aunts, Gayatri and Swati Goswami, who have faced psychological and social ostracism for being born with albinism. The book explores the siblings' sisterhood and companionship within the melancholic space of the 19th century residence in north Kolkata where they were born, grew up, and have lived their entire lives. It is a home that has become a sanctuary and a place of belonging for them Go Home Polish documents Michal Iwanowski's 1,200-mile walk from Wales to Poland in search of a definition of 'home' in post-Brexit Europe Outside the Binary is a series of portraits of people who identify outside the gender binary. For some, this might mean having both a male and female identity, or something in between. One possible definition is 'genderfluid', which refers to a gender that changes over time – a person may shift between feeling more masculine or feminine, but also androgynous or neutral. Another definition is 'agender', which can mean not identifying with any gender at all The Unruly Archive combines Syjuco's research-based practice with a substantial array of visual source material. Bound in a unique format with different types of paper, the pages are cut and layered to simulate the process of physically excavating folders in an archive. In Syjuco's own words, the book is 'a type of forensics … what it is like to piece together a vision of an entire country and people – the Philippines, Filipinos, and by extension, Filipinx Americans – through the lens of the American colonial archive' Taking photography as a means of introspection, over five decades Solomon studied the evolution of her ageing body and embraced the self-estrangement her camera affords. A Woman I Once Knew brings these self-portraits together alongside extended texts by Solomon to form a unique work of autobiography, ambitious in its combination of image and text Photograph: Rosalind Fox Solomon In the Dark the Tides Shine Bright is a companion book to the film of the same title. Rich and at times abstract, the images serve as narrative anchors punctuating the texts which expand on the film's propositions Photograph: Jeano Edwards Aisha is the first artist's book by Yemeni-Egyptian American photographer and film-maker Yumna Al-Arashi. It is inspired by her great-grandmother Aisha, and is an homage to her ancestors, women of the multidimensional and many-layered landscapes of the Mena region. Aisha also includes Al-Arashi's writing and poetry, in which she reflects on memories of her great-grandmother and the scent of oudh 'that left a trail of magic wherever she floated in that home' Rebecca Topakian's book offers an intimate and impressionistic portrait of Armenia, and includes her own pictures mixed with her family archives, establishing a link between past and present. Her story takes as a starting point the love of her great-grandparents, Garabed and Gulizar
