Photographer Anna Pantelia told CNN that she started noticing the objects on the beach that migrants leave behind as they rush into Europe. Little items like pacifiers, cigarettes, cell phones are either lost, thrown away or no longer needed. Each of the abandoned items has its own story to tell.
The young photographer took these objects to her study to show another side of the tale, different to that of the dead babies and mother crying but just as dark and poignant.
And the photographer herself:
The Greek photographer isn’t the only one to have been intrigued by the migrant stories through their discarded objects. Luis Vegas told Vice Spain:
I arrived at Hungary’s border with Serbia in early September. The area surrounding the village of Röszke, where I stayed for a few days, had recently become a hotspot in a migration route that starts in Greece and leads to Central Europe. Thousands of people pass through Röszke every day and – judging by the interviews I conducted there – most of them come from Syria.
Walking down the railroad tracks next to some of them, it struck me that I could tell the stories of these refugees without showing their faces. Instead, I thought, photographing all the things they left behind could illustrate all that they’re giving up in their journey for refuge.
As a photojournalist, I’ve spent the past decade covering routes of migration into Europe, but mostly those starting in Africa. What struck me in this case were the actual objects I found scattered between Hungary and Serbia: plush toys, medicine, boat tickets, sanitary products, food and clothing – all things you’d never find abandoned on the side of the street in poor countries like Mauritania, Mali, Senegal or Morocco.
While a vocal opposition are keen to portray refugees as a faceless mass of economic migrants invading Europe to snatch up all the jobs, perhaps these photos help to demonstrate that many are the exact opposite – that they’re people with purchasing power simply looking for protection.
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