BODIES OF EVIDENCE (Mashid Mohadjerin)
In 2011, the Belgian-Iranian photographer Mashid Mohadjerin visited the New York Mount Sinai School of Medicine where human rights doctor Ramin Asgary and his students investigate the bodies and scars of mostly African, masculine refugeees. The medical reports doctor Asgary makes about this are often used by the refugees to convince the migration jugdes that they have become the victim of tortures in their home country. Ramin Asgary examines the asylum seekers, listens to their stories and checks whether their stories correspond with their scars. In 'Bodies of Evidence', Mohadjerin shows clinical black-and-white photographs of burn wounds, scars or broken glasses that tell - in all their directness - heartbreaking and distressing stories of torture - some of them real, some of them made up.
The full article and pictures were published in the New York Times in 2011. Click here for the link to the full article.
The full article and pictures were published in the New York Times in 2011. Click here for the link to the full article.
Mashid has been the recipient of numerous awards among which first place in the 2009 World Press Photo Contemporary Issues category, International Photography Award, Prix de La Photo. Her work was shown at Aperture Gallery in New York, at the Wandsworth Museum in London, Noorderlicht Photo festival in Holland, FotoLeggendo in Italy, Palm Springs Photo Festival in California, and around Central Asia.
Her work focuses primarily on identity issues and the human condition. She has turned her camera to subjects such as migration, minority groups, and the socially displaced, and occasionally humanitarian disaster zones. Mashid’s work has taken her to Central Asia, West Africa, the Middle East, Europe and throughout the United States.
Mashid’s personal projects include “Left Behind”, a portrait based photo-essay on the wives and families of Tajik migrant workers in Tajikistan in 2007 (The New York Times Lens Blog, Global Post, Noorderlicht Photo Festival in the Netherlands, International Talent Support in Italy, I.O.M. traveling exhibition, among others), “Boat Migrants,” a photo essay on Sub-Saharan Africans’ perilous crossing from the coast of Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa (La Repubblica/La Domenica 2009, 1st Prize World Press Photo Award, FotoLeggendo Festival in Italy, among others), “Trafficking of Women in Europe,” a photo-essay on young women, victims of human trafficking from Romania and Bulgaria, lured to northern Europe by traffickers with the promise of better paid jobs (DM magazine 2011, King Boudewijn Foundation Grant) and more recently “Native American Youth in Oklahma,” a photo-essay on native youth, struggling to maintain their culture and traditions.
Mashid was based in New York, United States from 2006 to 2012. She is currently based in Belgium, working on a research in the arts project in the Middle East at the Royal Academy of Fine Art.
For her website, click here. Below you can find her most famous photograph, showing boat refugees looking for a new and better life. This photograph was awarded the 2009 World Press photo-award.
Her work focuses primarily on identity issues and the human condition. She has turned her camera to subjects such as migration, minority groups, and the socially displaced, and occasionally humanitarian disaster zones. Mashid’s work has taken her to Central Asia, West Africa, the Middle East, Europe and throughout the United States.
Mashid’s personal projects include “Left Behind”, a portrait based photo-essay on the wives and families of Tajik migrant workers in Tajikistan in 2007 (The New York Times Lens Blog, Global Post, Noorderlicht Photo Festival in the Netherlands, International Talent Support in Italy, I.O.M. traveling exhibition, among others), “Boat Migrants,” a photo essay on Sub-Saharan Africans’ perilous crossing from the coast of Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa (La Repubblica/La Domenica 2009, 1st Prize World Press Photo Award, FotoLeggendo Festival in Italy, among others), “Trafficking of Women in Europe,” a photo-essay on young women, victims of human trafficking from Romania and Bulgaria, lured to northern Europe by traffickers with the promise of better paid jobs (DM magazine 2011, King Boudewijn Foundation Grant) and more recently “Native American Youth in Oklahma,” a photo-essay on native youth, struggling to maintain their culture and traditions.
Mashid was based in New York, United States from 2006 to 2012. She is currently based in Belgium, working on a research in the arts project in the Middle East at the Royal Academy of Fine Art.
For her website, click here. Below you can find her most famous photograph, showing boat refugees looking for a new and better life. This photograph was awarded the 2009 World Press photo-award.