WHAT YOU (DO NOT) SEE (2021)
Some of the most important moments in our lives are often left in silence. The 15 portraits of youths from H20 High school in Oslo presented as a composition consisting of photographs, texts, and audio storytelling, are an outcome of the collaborative project between camera-based artist Rebecca Shirin Jafari, drama-pedagogue Katinka Brodin, and teacher Synnøve Virhøy.
The teenagers who in the past few years came to Norway from different places of the world and due to various reasons (often not easy ones) share one moment that has defined them, shaped them, or changed them. The portraits made as photo collages reveal the double narrative students have to live every day, situated between the culture of origin and Norwegian expectations. Youth's stories are all: vulnerable, personal, teenage, adult, and universal.
Katinka Brodin asked the students to choose 10 important moments from their life and talk about them, then, she helped to choose one for storytelling. Rebecca Shirin Jafari first photographed the youths one by one; the students themselves chose how they wanted to be captured. After many meetings and talks, Rebecca and the students together made collages.
Det du (ikke) ser can be seen through the lens of our contemporaneity that often demands from individuals to navigate across cultural/geographical/social/political borders thus questioning one's identity. And at the same time, Det du (ikke) ser tells about apparently insignificant events or decisions that in fact can shape life. Whenever we meet a new person, there are things we do not see at the first sight. And maybe, we will never give ourselves a chance to see? Det du (ikke) ser is also about listening and seeing others in an attentive and respectful way that requires time.
The selected portraits of Milen, Marwa, Eimmy, Paola, and Saeed are presented in the frame of the Fotobokfestivalen 2021 after conversation and agreement with the participants. The project is a part of Den kulturelles skolesekkens skoleutviklingsmidler (SKUP).
*kulturelles skolesekken Oslo (DKS Oslo), UDE og finansiert av DKS Oslo og dekomp-midler fra UDIR.
