Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/785757
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2017 30 This Week Photography from the streets MOHAMED KEITA: During the time when I was sleeping on the streets, I would fre- quent a youth centre where at one point, they gave me a camera as a present. At first, I would simply use it to record what's around me – I wanted to retain some clear memories of this period of my life. So, that's when and how I started taking pictures – as a way of ensuring that I don't forget what I went through at that time. I would enroll into photography school some time after that, where I gained a more solid ground- ing in photographic language. At the end of the day though my goal is simple – I'm drawn to depicting everyday life through photography. The urgent value of the 'fixed image' MARIO BADAGLIACCA: It's becoming in- creasingly obvious how the relationship between images and the general public has gone through a dramatic change in recent years, as we are increasingly subjected to a continuous flow of news and photographic or video images. I am, however, convinced photography has still an important role to play. Not that I believe that photography can change the world, but I still think that it helps raise awareness on a series of impor- tant issues. The power of photography is to fix the moment. Psychologically speaking, there's a difference between perceiving a 'fixed' image and a 'moving' image (as in a video, for example). The 'fixed' image con- strains us to reflect on it in a different way. In my case, I want the images to serve as a spur for further questions – to be curious about the stories I'm telling. I don't want to give answers, but raise more questions. Taking it all in MOHAMED KEITA: My three-year journey [from the Ivory Coast to Italy] was a dif- ficult one. But it taught me the value of ob- serving my surroundings and taking them all in. It's something that's reflected in the way I approach the photographic process. Because while the subject is very impor- tant to me, at the same time, I always strive to incorporate various elements into the picture. Because for me, it's important to think of photography as being composed of various elements, not just a single one. Observing from the borders MARIO BADAGLIACCA: My recent investi- gation of Belgrade is a first step of a long- er-term project along the European Bor- ders, that I am developing together with a French journalist and writer, Flore Mu- rard-Yovanovitch as part of a self-financed project called 'Border Violence'. Our pur- pose is to uncover and keep track of human rights abuses perpetuated on migrants, and I've found Serbia in particular to be a key place to understand what is happening in Europe on the migrant issue. Over the past few years, I have often come face to face with violent and dra- matic situations, but the level of violence and xenophobia I was confronted with in the Serbian situation – especially as per- petuated by the neighbouring countries of Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary – left me ut- terly disoriented. Persons with broken legs or scars beaten by police or by the 'citizen fascists militia', which are hunting refugees on the frontiers; people forced to sleep in the cold winter without any form of live- lihoods or protection; forced marches and people abandoned in the woods, with tem- perature below zero. We are talking about men, women and children without shoes or warm clothes. The 'idea of invasion' – or the 'percep- tion of siege' – has been manipulated by all European governments to justify regressive and violent migratory politics. Fixing the moment Ahead of their participation on the RIMA Photography Workshops – where they will help migrants of all nationalities living in Malta to express themselves through the medium of photography – TEODOR RELJIC speaks to photographers Mohamed Keita and Mario Badagliacca, who will be leading the workshops starting the second week of March, about how their experiences with documentary photography are shaped by the political realities that they can't look away from The migrants living at the Belgrade Waterfront are using the beams of abandoned tracks (or tires or rubbish) against the temperatures below zero degrees and to produce hot water. Photo by Mario Badagliacca Sardinia, 2016. Photo by Mohamed Keita Migrants at the Belgrade Waterfront. Photo by Mario Badagliacca Rome, 2016. Photo by Mohamed Keita "The 'idea of invasion' – or the 'perception of siege' – has been manipulated by all European governments to justify regressive and violent migratory politics." - Mario Badagliacca