Portrait of a refugee included in this year’s National Photographic Portrait finalists
The Refugee Art Project is proud to announce the portrait, Atef 2013, an artistic collaboration between Refugee Art Project and fashion photographer Alex Weltlinger, is a finalists in this year’s National Photographic Portrait Prize.
Our entry depicts Atef*, a 36-year old Hazara man from Afghanistan. The intention behind this image is to challenge the viewer’s preconceptions of fashion photography and the demeaning myth of illegal ‘queue jumpers’ who threaten Australia’s borders. What may look like a familiar Vanity Fair spread is actually the portrait of a man who fled his country under threat of persecution from the Taliban and who has not seen his wife and child for many years.
Atef’s portrait is one of a series of photographs of refugees in Australia produced by Refugee Art Project in collaboration with Alex Weltlinger. Atef spent over 20 months in Australian detention centres before being released.
“What interested me about this was challenging perceptions” said photographer Alex Weltlinger. “The current rhetoric around asylum seekers in the public space is incredibly toxic – they are demonised by our politicians as ‘queue jumpers’, people who’ll ‘take our jobs’, unfair and unworthy add-ons to Australia.”
You can see the portrait and find out about the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery website.
You can see more of Alex Weltlinger’s work here.
*To protect the subject’s privacy, ‘Atef’ is a pseudonym.
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