Gabriela Bulisova is an extraordinary documentary photographer from Czechoslavakia. She came to St. Mary's earlier in the semester to present some of her work in the WGSX Colloquium on "Women in War." Her photographs were hung all over upper Monty. As I walked past, I took a look at some of them and was in awe. Each photograph was so distinct and had so much emotion and purpose. I used to do a lot of photography in high school and have great interest in that particular art form so I decided to go to her talk. Of all of the lectures I have been to at this school across the many disciplines, this lecture was by far the most interesting and moving to me. Not only is her artwork amazing, but the research and stories behind each photograph is amazing. Each photograph has it's own in depth story to tell. For this particular art show, Bulisova was displaying portraits of many Iraqi refugees. She titled this project, "Guests." It focused on refugees who fled the war in Iraq and relocated primarily to Syria. She said that this was one of the greatest refugee crises in history. Approximately 15% of Iraq's population is or was in flight. She found a lot of interest in this topic, especially because it had received little to no attention from the media. Bulisova went to Syria and interviewed and photographed many of these refugees. She said she wishes she could make a bigger difference for them after hearing their stories, however she already has a made a difference by telling their stories through her art. Many of the people she interviewed fled due to political or religious affiliation. While in Syria, she stayed in a very poor area and was restricted from photographing in certain areas. She learned that many of the refugees in Syria don't have the same rights. Some can't even work or earn money. Many of the women had to resort to prostitution because they couldn't work.
Bulisova took the time to go through some of her photographs and tell the stories behind them. One of the photographs shown was of a man whose house was bombed targeting him. He was luckily not home at the time. However two of his four children were killed. Of the other two, one received major burns to the stomach and the other has post traumatic stress disorder. After the event, the mother had a stroke. Another image showed a man who had been shot at seven times and was in severe need of spinal surgery, but couldn't afford it. One of the photos that moved me the most was one of a man with a sign reading "a boy for sale." The man holding the sign was too poor to take care of his son anymore and loved his son so much that he felt the only option for his son to survive would be to sell him to a family who could afford to take care of him. He took his son out on the street then began weeping and took his son inside and said they would figure out some way to make it work. Bulisova went to Syria a second time. She went in search of people who wanted their stories told and found that many people had given up and didn't want to talk. Upon arriving at the house of the her translator, the translator said, "I need a break; let's go to the beach." Bulisova reluctantly went along with little hope of finding refugees to interview on the beach. Luckily they found a group of woman at the beach with their children. The women forced their children to go to the beach that day because they were too depressed and needed to find some happiness. The photograph was almost a bit humorous because it was of these smiling woman in long black robes in beach chairs; quite different from the majority of the refugee photos. The last group of refugees that Bulisova discussed was a group that had made it to the US. Upon hearing about refugees relocating to the US, most would think this would be good news. However this particular group was made up of Iraqis who actually had been helping the US by being the eyes and ears for the US army. Many of them worked as translators. They were marked at traitors and were targeted to be assassinated. There were over 100,000 of them and only about 3,000 were granted visas to the US. Once they arrived, their lives did not improved. They were forgotten and felt abandoned. Many Americans ignored them or looked at them as if they were terrorists.
I really look up to Bulisova for doing this project. I think it takes a lot of bravery and determination to do a project like this where she went to dangerous places to document and tell the stories of the refugees that some people may have tried to ignore. She really is making a difference in the world through her art as is her goal. She is currently working on a project on women in prison to tell their stories. I really admire her work because she completely delves her mind, body, and soul into it and really cares about these people and their stories. I can't think of any way she could possibly improve her work. Not only does each photograph have it's own emotional story, but each photo is taken with delicacy and purpose. I really love her work and enjoyed going to her lecture.
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