86 images Created 18 Jun 2019
Fridays, Berlin, Earth
Fridays For Future is a movement of school students who refuse to go to school on Fridays and who instead fight for action to prevent further climate breakdown. I’ve been documenting these protests since the beginning. In this photo essay the focus is on people. This is a story about us and our own survival.
I am a former refugee. When I fled the civil war in Sarajevo, my home town, I left with only a suitcase in my hand. Having lived in many different countries afterwards, I am a perpetual migrant, more concerned with the world than with any particular place. My imagery speaks to the fragile human condition, which is exacerbated by a real sense of urgency in the age of climate change.
I was able to get a glimpse of climate emergency through personal experience. When my Havana home was flooded a few years ago, I found myself helpless. I remember the water was rising. We ran to our child’s bed to grab him and carry him to safety. My life shifted overnight. No longer concerned with making images, my priorities became salvaging the most necessary possessions and fleeing from the disaster scene. Seven people died in Havana that night as the result of the flooding, and many others lost everything they had.
Now I see the waters rising around me everywhere – physically as well as metaphorically. Climate change has affected me, and it is affecting us all. Motivated by the desire for my two children to live in a just and livable world, I no longer hesitate to focus my lens on what people are doing and the spaces they inhabit. I use my camera to frame my subjects, to highlight their political expressions and human emotions in the context of events that are radically changing our lives. I'm hoping that together we can change the world.
I am a former refugee. When I fled the civil war in Sarajevo, my home town, I left with only a suitcase in my hand. Having lived in many different countries afterwards, I am a perpetual migrant, more concerned with the world than with any particular place. My imagery speaks to the fragile human condition, which is exacerbated by a real sense of urgency in the age of climate change.
I was able to get a glimpse of climate emergency through personal experience. When my Havana home was flooded a few years ago, I found myself helpless. I remember the water was rising. We ran to our child’s bed to grab him and carry him to safety. My life shifted overnight. No longer concerned with making images, my priorities became salvaging the most necessary possessions and fleeing from the disaster scene. Seven people died in Havana that night as the result of the flooding, and many others lost everything they had.
Now I see the waters rising around me everywhere – physically as well as metaphorically. Climate change has affected me, and it is affecting us all. Motivated by the desire for my two children to live in a just and livable world, I no longer hesitate to focus my lens on what people are doing and the spaces they inhabit. I use my camera to frame my subjects, to highlight their political expressions and human emotions in the context of events that are radically changing our lives. I'm hoping that together we can change the world.