Make Europe no border / Idomeni 2016, photo essay by Maurizio Gjivovich
“We don’t have enough food. We have no other clothes. We can’t look after our hygiene,” said J, a 26 year-old Syrian stuck on the Greece-Macedonian border in Idomeni for 10 days.
As European borders go up, refugees and migrants are being left stranded and desperate.
“There is no safe way to continue our journey. The border is almost closed for us fleeing war,” said J. “I feel hopeless. I just want to live normally again.”
In February, Austria said it would only accept a handful of asylum seekers and refugees a day, setting off a domino effect of borders being closed to the vast majority of those people fleeing war and poverty from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
On 9 March, Slovenia and neighbouring Croatia refused to allow the transit of most refugees through their territory. Serbia and Macedonia say they will do the same. (Maurizio Gjivovich)
Q&A with Maurizio Gjivovich
Photography is…
Photographing is like telling short stories. You are telling YOUR story and, in few images, the suggestion and emotion that an event, small or little it can be, leave in it’s echo, always being honest with himself and trying to leave some pieces of personality during the storytelling.
Photography and writing…
Photography is kinda like writing. Writing and reading are the most important things in storytelling as in image composition. They are fundamental.
Who left the biggest impression on you?
I was always astonished by the emotions that images from great photographers like Mary Ellen Mark, Josef Koudelka, Antony Suau or even our contemporary Alex Webb and David Alan Harvey evoked in me. The essence of an image and the strength of an idea behind them.
