In the UK, people seeking asylum endure extended periods of uncertainty while awaiting a response to their applications. Unable to work, they may endure poverty or destitution, poor physical and mental health, and even internment in a detention centre. If their application is rejected, they must come to terms with not only the wasted years but also the frightening prospect of being forced to return to a country that they risked all to leave. Those who remain in the UK after their asylum application has been rejected face an insecure future, entirely dependent on the support of family, friends, and charitable organizations. Creating a visual metaphor for the corrosive impact of the asylum process on individuals, Alan Gignoux worked with a camera obscura using a long exposure to blur the identity of the refugees whom he photographed while leaving the background in focus. Seeking to include the refugees’ voices in the project, he invited the refugees to write a creative response to the blurred portraits in writing workshops.

Alan Gignoux is a documentary photographer and founder of Gignoux Photos, which produces documentary photography and film projects focussing on socio-political and environmental issues around the world.

Gignoux is committed to exposing the effects of displacement on communities around the world. His most exhibited body of work, Homeland Lost, juxtaposes portraits of Palestinian refugees with their former homes in Israel. He has been a regular visitor to the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria, building relationships and recording camp life since 2005. His most recent Arts Council-funded project is
“You Can See Me, But I Don't Exist"