American photographer shows refugees 'as they see themselves'

Amman — An American has launched a photography project showing refugees as "normal people" as part of Amman's Image Festival, in a bid to counter often reductionist media portrayals. 

Tomas Van Houtryve opened his exhibition titled “Traces of Exile” to show how refugees see themselves.   

“Why not look at the refugees in a new way, not the way journalists see them, but how they see themselves,” he told The Jordan Times in an interview.  

The idea of this exhibition was to combine two kinds of photos, some taken by refugees and others taken by him in the exact same location. 

“I started researching all these photos posted on Instagram and I came up with a list of 130 refugees that I found,” he recalled. 

The photos were taken by refugees with their mobile phones and posted on Instagram, tagging specific places, Van Houtryve explained.

The American photographer said he came up with the idea after he saw the route refugees took to reach Europe. 

“I live in Europe and I was watching the news, seeing how the refugee crisis was happening and what I noticed from the photos shared in the media was that the refugees were mostly portrayed in two ways; either as victims that people should feel sorry for, or as threats,” he added. 

The US photographer wondered why people do not look at the refugees in a new way, different from the way journalists often depict them.

“Their motivation for taking such a photo is totally different from a photojournalist: they shared their photos with their families. They do not want to share sad moments; they want to share happy moments,” he added.  

A photographer since 1999, Van Houtryve started working for the Associated Press for four years, before becoming a freelancer for French and American magazines.