Seba Kurtis' new work on migrants goes on show

Kurtis started making work about migration issues a decade ago, first focusing his lens on the Latino community in the US, an estimated six million of whom are illegal, marginalised and consigned to menial labour and exploitation by the innumerable small businesses willing to pay cash-in-hand for underpaid labour. In 2006 President Bush authorised the fencing of 700 miles along the US-Mexican border, an act of nationalism that exacerbated the already fraught relationship with white Americans.

His Immigration Files, an ongoing, multifaceted and open proejct later shifted from its focus on the Hispanic migrants in America in 700miles to the migration of young men from Egypt to Europe via Libya in A Few More Days. Among his most evocative work is Kif, which he started in 2008 and – like many of his series – continued for many years, finally publishing it as a photobook with Here Press in 2013.

From the series Heartbeat © Seba Kurtis, courtesy Christophe Guye Galerie
From the series Heartbeat © Seba Kurtis, courtesy Christophe Guye Galerie

Kif is a paean to the photographer’s long-gone friend Dodo, whom he met in Tenerife when they both shared a flat and worked illegally in the building trade. Kurtis later learned that Dodo had died, alone in Barcelona, following a trip he made to Morocco as a drugs mule, smuggling hashish, or kif, as it’s known locally. After Dodo’s death, Kurtis retraced his journey, travelling to the Rif mountains where the kif is grown and harvested, in tribute to his friend.

Now 42, Kurtis has been working alongside NGOs for a number of years, and says the volunteers’ work has made him realise that “photography is actually a poor platform” to speak about the issues migrants face. “What the volunteers do is amazing – from doctors to people who go there just to hang out with refugees so they don’t feel alone,” he says. “It’s refreshing to see so many people who care about others.”

Photography is my platform, it’s my voice and it allows me to tell their stories, but sometimes the process of doing my work, when I am actually there with them in the camps or the detention centres, is more important than showing my work in an exhibition.”

Seba Kurtis is showing recent work in a group exhibition called Discursive Documents, on show at Huddersfield Art Gallery until 06 May. He will present his work and discuss it with fellow artist Alex Beldea from 2pm-4.30pm on 02 March. www.hud.ac.uk www.sebakurtis.com

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