Living in fleetingness - The forgotten refugees of South-Caucasus

Photo-Book:
 "Living in fleetingness - the forgotten refugees of the South Caucasus"
(Armenia, Nagorny Karabakh, Georgia, Azerbaijan)

During various travels around Armenia and Georgia in the past years, I recognised that the refugee and IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) issue is still a pressing problem for the countries of the South Caucasus. Over the last 25 years, hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their homes as a result of military and politic conflicts.
Considering the situation in the Ukraine or Syria or elsewhere, we will have to accept that this issue of flights and displacement will probably continue to exist for an indefinite amount of time.

The initial situation:

In order to explore this situation in more depth, I decided to spend a longer time in the region. From September 2014 to February 2015, I travelled through the South Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Nagorny Karabakh, Azerbaijan) to make a documentary about the fate and current living conditions of the people in this region.
I conducted around 150 interviews and shot thousand of pictures, mostly portraits of the protagonists.
I want to show that, regardless of the respective governments, these people more or less live under the same dismal conditions and do not have any realistic prospects. They are like pawns in the hands of their governments’ officials, and even international organisations do not achieve more than providing some houses and from time to time some additional material support. But nobody talks with these people, nobody wants to hear their stories, nobody cares about their very often isolated lives and their separated communities.
Through storytelling, I got very close to these people, and sometimes they forgot that I had a camera with me, because they wanted to tell their stories.
All too often, these people disappear behind numbers and reports about new "floods" of refugees that “threaten” our societies.
Especially in the case of the South Caucasus, only a few people in Europe have noticed what has been going on. After the fall of the Berlin Wall we were so busy changing our own societies ...
Therefore, all these people from Baku who had to flee to Armenia or, conversely, Armenians fleeing to Azerbaijan, all the displaced persons from Nagorny Karabkh, from Abkhazia or South Ossetia, from the Russian-Georgian war of 2008 or nowadays from Syria (where there are many people with Armenian roots)—it is always the common people who suffer the most.

The idea:

The pictures show the people in different situations in life, at different places, in different countries. These pics are daily life portraits with the respective natural, social environment of the people. They were taken during visits in camps, houses, and flats, while the people were telling their stories.
I tried to be as authentic as possible, since the very fact of a visitor attending changes the situation already. But sometimes the people started to go about their daily business and ceased to take notice of the photographer, thus merging with their stories, oblivious of the intruder.

The Form:

Photobook B&W, 160 pages hardcover, 22x27 cm, strong pigmented black & white print on 150 g picture print paper; 2,000 copies.
Simultaneously, I am planning to make changing exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland and Austria as well as in the South-Caucasus.

What is the project goal and who is the project for?
In a time of being flooded with information via the various mass media, while at the same time blocking out so much of reality, this documentation aims to assert humanity apart from all political and ideological debates.
The images are intended to stimulate and at the same time provide the opportunity to take a closer look at the significance of what is going on beyond our narrow horizon. They want to inspire us to see humans as humans and not as mere numbers or threats to our own world.
At the same time, these photos are intended to promote the idea of a socially engaged and aesthetically ambitious photography.
Target groups:
cosmopolitan and curious humans, friends of documentary and reportage photography, photo friends of any kind, politically and socially engaged people

Why would you support this project?
The project shows the situation of refugees and IDPs (internally displaced persons), who have been abandoned by their governements as well as by the international community. Sometimes they are being systematically abused for political reasons.
In order to stay independent and gain direct access to these people, I financed the entire travels, including all expences (such as living costs, rental cars, interpreters etc.), myself. Now I need your support for publishing the result, because all foundations or organizations I applied to either rejected the project or did not even respond.

How will we use the money if the project is successfully funded?
The money will be used for printing and some overhead costs. I need 50% of the printing costs (approx. 14-15.000 Euros; the other 50% will be provided by the publishing house, if the campaign is succesful).
In case I should collect more money than required for the book, the surplus will be spent on the exhibitions I am planing in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and in the South Caucasus.