César Dezfuli

With his unwavering gaze, Amadou Soumaila, a 22 year old young man originally from Mali, stands on the deck of a boat, the Mediterranean Sea in the background. He is one of 118 men (adults and minors) who have just been disembarked from an overloaded inflatable dinghy, floating adrift 20 nautical miles from the Libyan coast, all photographed by Spanish-Persian photographer Cesar Dezfuli moments after their rescue.

We follow Amadou’s story, which has a happy ending, and explore Refugee Week 2022’s theme of Healing. In this context, healing means recovering from a painful experience or situation, so that we can continue to live. In this regard we have much to learn from refugees about holding onto hope when going on seems impossible, as well as about how art, creativity and community can help us to heal.

Self-taught in photography and having learned his trade as a journalist in various newsrooms, Cesar Dezfuli now works as a freelance photojournalist, focusing on humanitarian crises and international affairs. His work has been published in international media such as The Guardian, Time Magazine, El Pais, Zeitung and Aljazeera, and recognised with several awards including the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize (UK), Sony World Photography 2020 and Head On Photo Awards (Australia), among others.

The exhibition also includes refugee and migrant cookbooks, testimonies from the Invisible Britain project curated by Paul Sng, the books Drawing Across Borders by George Butler, Lingering Ghosts by Sam Ivin and other resources.