Fabrica presents Lingering Ghosts, its new editorial project, the fruit of creative research by young British photographer Sam Ivin.
What does it mean to be an asylum seeker in the UK? This was the starting point of Ivin’s research, which began at a drop-in centre in Cardiff, Wales and continued all over England.
The result is a book made up of portraits, where the eyes have been scratched out: once arrived in the UK, these migrants find themselves in a state of limbo, having to await news of their application for asylum for months or even years. They become “lingering ghosts”. Physically scratching the faces of these 28 migrants is a way to powerfully convey the cruel loss of self, and the confusion that befalls them as they wait to learn their fate.
Ivin’s work offers a contemplative take, away from the glaring lights of the media. His modified portraits simply and powerfully give a view on an issue that is often underreported: the plight of asylum seekers.
Despite being represented without their eyes, these people do have an identity and we recognise them as fathers, mothers, sons and daughters – human beings, after all.
BOOK
Lingering Ghosts
Asylum seekers in the UK
Sam Ivin
Fabrica
http://www.fabrica.it
