ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ziyah Gafić - Photographer + storyteller
To help him come to terms with the tragedy of his own homeland, Bosnian photographer Ziyah Gafić turns his camera on the aftermath of conflict, showing his images in galleries, in books and on Instagram.

Why you should listen

Ziyah Gafić uses his camera to capture the aftermath of war. He has traveled to Pakistan, Iraq and Chechnya to capture beautiful portraits of people carrying on with their lives in the face of destruction; he has photographed the everyday lives of children in Rwanda, a generation born from the widespread use of rape as a weapon during the Rwandan genocide. A moving question runs through his work: After war, how do people manage to keep the fabric of society together?

Gafić's interest in this subject comes from his own biography. Born in Sarajevo, he was a teenager during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. Through photography, he parses what happened in his homeland. For his book Quest for Identity, Gafić photographed the watches, keys, shoes, combs and glasses exhumed from mass graves 20 years after the Bosnian War. These objects are cleaned, catalogued and used to help identify the bodies found with them, but afterwards, they become what Gafić calls “orphans of the narrative,” either destroyed or stored away out of sight and out of mind. His quest is to keep them in view as a last testament to the fact that these people existed, preserving them as an easily accessible visual archive that tells the story of what happened—integrating an objective forensic perspective with human compassion.

More profile about the speaker
Ziyah Gafić | Speaker | TED.com
TED2014

Ziyah Gafić: Everyday objects, tragic histories

Obxectos cotiáns, historias tráxicas

Filmed:
1,040,925 views

Ziyah Gafic fotografía obxectos cotiáns: reloxos, zapatos, lentes. Pero estas imaxes, que son aparentemente simples, retratan obxectos exhumados de foxas comúns da guerra de Bosnia. O colaborador de TED Gafic procede de Saraxevo e fotografiou cada obxecto desas foxas para crear un arquivo vivo das identidades dos desaparecidos.
- Photographer + storyteller
To help him come to terms with the tragedy of his own homeland, Bosnian photographer Ziyah Gafić turns his camera on the aftermath of conflict, showing his images in galleries, in books and on Instagram. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
These are simple objects:
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Estes son obxectos simples:
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clocks, keys, combs, glasses.
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reloxos, chaves, peites, lentes
00:18
They are the things the victims of genocide in Bosnia
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Son as cousas que as vítimas
do xenocidio en Bosnia
00:20
carried with them on their final journey.
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levaron na súa viaxe final.
00:23
We are all familiar with these mundane,
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Todos estamos afeitos a estes obxectos
00:26
everyday objects.
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mundanos e cotiáns
00:27
The fact that some of the victims carried
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O feito de que algunhas vítimas
00:29
personal items such as
toothpaste and a toothbrush
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levaran obxectos persoais como
a pasta ou o cepillo de dentes
00:32
is a clear sign they had no idea
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é un sinal de que non tiñan idea
00:35
what was about to happen to them.
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do que ía ocurrirlles.
00:37
Usually, they were told that they were going to be
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Adoitaban dicirlles
que serían intercambiados
00:39
exchanged for prisoners of war.
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por prisioneiros de guerra
00:42
These items have been recovered
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Estes obxectos recuperáronse
00:44
from numerous mass graves across my homeland,
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de numerosas foxas comúns da miña terra
00:47
and as we speak, forensics are exhuming bodies
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E, mentras falamos,
os forenses exhuman corpos
00:49
from newly discovered mass graves,
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das novas foxas comúns que se atopan
00:51
20 years after the war.
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20 anos despois da guerra.
00:53
And it is quite possibly the largest ever discovered.
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E son quizais os maiores descubertos
00:57
During the four years of conflict
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Durante os catro anos do conflito
00:59
that devastated the Bosnian nation in the early '90s,
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que desolou Bosnia a principios dos 90,
01:02
approximately 30,000 citizens, mainly civilians,
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uns 30000 cidadáns, civís a maioría,
01:05
went missing, presumed killed,
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desapareceron,
seguramente asasinados
01:07
and another 100,000 were killed
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e outros 100000 foron aniquilados
01:09
during combat operations.
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durante as operacións de combate.
01:11
Most of them were killed
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Os máis foron asasinados,
01:13
either in the early days of the war
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ben nos primeiros días da guerra,
01:14
or towards the end of the hostilities,
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ou ben cara a fin do conflito,
01:16
when U.N. safe zones like Srebrenica
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cando as áreas seguras da
ONU como Srebrenica
01:19
fell into the hands of the Serb army.
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caeron en mans do exército serbio.
01:22
The international criminal tribunal
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O tribunal penal internacional
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delivered a number of sentences
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ditou sentencias
01:26
for crimes against humanity and genocide.
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por crimes contra a humanidade e xenocidio
01:29
Genocide is a systematic and deliberate
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Xenocidio é a destrución sistemática
01:32
destruction of a racial, political, religious
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e deliberada dun grupo étnico,
01:36
or ethnic group.
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político, relixioso e racial
01:37
As much as genocide is about killing.
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O xenocicio é tanto a matanza
01:40
It is also about destroying their property,
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como a destrución da propiedade,
01:43
their cultural heritage,
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da herdanza cultural,
01:45
and ultimately the very notion that they ever existed.
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e básicamente de calquera sinal
da súa existencia
01:48
Genocide is not only about the killing;
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O xenocidio non é só a matanza;
01:51
it is about the denied identity.
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é a negación da identidade
01:54
There are always traces —
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Sempre hai pistas,
01:55
no such thing as a perfect crime.
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non hai crime perfecto
01:57
There are always remnants of the perished ones
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Sempre quedan remanentes dos aniquilados
02:00
that are more durable than their fragile bodies
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que duran máis que os seus corpos fráxiles
02:02
and our selective and fading memory of them.
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ou que a nosa selectiva e débil memoria.
02:06
These items are recovered
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Estes obxectos recupéranse
02:09
from numerous mass graves,
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de moitas foxas comúns
02:10
and the main goal of this collection of the items
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e o obxectivo da recolecta de obxectos
02:13
is a unique process
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é un proceso único
02:15
of identifying those who disappeared in the killings,
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de identificación dos que desapareceron
02:18
the first act of genocide on European soil
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no primeiro acto de xenocidio en Europa
02:21
since the Holocaust.
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dende o Holocausto
02:22
Not a single body should remain undiscovered
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Ningún corpo debería quedar sen descubrir
02:25
or unidentified.
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ou sen identidicar
02:27
Once recovered,
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Unha vez se recuperan
02:28
these items that the victims carried with them
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estes obxectos que as vítimas levaban
02:31
on their way to execution
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camiño á súa execución
02:33
are carefully cleaned, analyzed,
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límpanse, analízanse
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catalogued and stored.
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catalóganse e almacénanse
02:37
Thousands of artifacts are
packed in white plastic bags
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Miles deles métense
en bolsas de plástico
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just like the ones you see on CSI.
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como as que vedes en CSI
02:43
These objects are used as a forensic tool
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Úsanse como ferramentas forenses
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in visual identification of the victims,
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na identificación visual de vítimas
02:48
but they are also used as
very valuable forensic evidence
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pero tamén como probas valiosoas
02:51
in the ongoing war crimes trials.
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nos xuizos de guerra
02:54
Survivors are occasionally called
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Ás veces chámase a supervivintes
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to try to identify these items physically,
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para identificalos físicamente
02:59
but physical browsing is extremely difficult,
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pero o recoñecemento visual
é un proceso difícil,
03:02
an ineffective and painful process.
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inefectivo e doloroso
03:05
Once the forensics and doctors and lawyers
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Unha vez que forenses, médicos e avogados
03:09
are done with these objects,
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acaban con eles
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they become orphans of the narrative.
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pasan a ser orfos da narrativa
03:13
Many of them get destroyed, believe it or not,
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Moitos destrúense,
aínda que non o crean
03:16
or they get simply shelved,
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ou simplemente aplílanse
03:17
out of sight and out of mind.
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fóra da vista e da mente
03:20
I decided a few years ago
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Hai uns anos decidín
03:22
to photograph every single exhumed item
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fotografiar cada obxecto exhumado
03:25
in order to create a visual archive
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para crear un sinxelo arquivo visual
03:27
that survivors could easily browse.
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que os supervivintes manexasen
03:30
As a storyteller, I like to give back to the community.
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Como narrador, gústame dar aos demais,
03:34
I like to move beyond raising awareness.
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gústame promover a sensibilización
03:37
And in this case, someone may
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e neste caso, alguñen pode
03:39
recognize these items
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recoñecer os obxectos
03:41
or at least their photographs will remain
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ou polo menos que as fotos quedan
03:43
as a permanent, unbiased and accurate reminder
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como recordo permanente,
fiel e imparcial
03:47
of what happened.
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do que ocorreu.
03:49
Photography is about empathy,
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A fotografía é empatía
03:51
and the familiarity of these
items guarantee empathy.
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e a familiaridade destes
obxectos garantízaa.
03:54
In this case, I am merely a tool,
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Neste caso, eu son só unha ferramenta,
03:57
a forensic, if you like,
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un forense, se queredes,
03:59
and the result is a photography that is as close
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e o resultado é o máis parecido
04:01
as possible of being a document.
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posíbel a un documento
04:04
Once all the missing persons are identified,
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Cando se identifique aos desaparecidos
04:07
only decaying bodies in their graves
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so quedarán os corpos descompoñéndose
04:09
and these everyday items will remain.
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e estes obxectos cotiáns
04:11
In all their simplicity,
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En toda a súa simplicidade
04:13
these items are the last testament
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Estes obxectos son o testamento
04:15
to the identity of the victims,
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para a identidade das vítimas
04:17
the last permanent reminder
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o último recordatorio
04:19
that these people ever existed.
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de que esas persoas existiron
04:21
Thank you very much.
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Moitas grazas
04:23
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Lucia Fraga
Reviewed by Alicia Ferreiro

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ziyah Gafić - Photographer + storyteller
To help him come to terms with the tragedy of his own homeland, Bosnian photographer Ziyah Gafić turns his camera on the aftermath of conflict, showing his images in galleries, in books and on Instagram.

Why you should listen

Ziyah Gafić uses his camera to capture the aftermath of war. He has traveled to Pakistan, Iraq and Chechnya to capture beautiful portraits of people carrying on with their lives in the face of destruction; he has photographed the everyday lives of children in Rwanda, a generation born from the widespread use of rape as a weapon during the Rwandan genocide. A moving question runs through his work: After war, how do people manage to keep the fabric of society together?

Gafić's interest in this subject comes from his own biography. Born in Sarajevo, he was a teenager during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. Through photography, he parses what happened in his homeland. For his book Quest for Identity, Gafić photographed the watches, keys, shoes, combs and glasses exhumed from mass graves 20 years after the Bosnian War. These objects are cleaned, catalogued and used to help identify the bodies found with them, but afterwards, they become what Gafić calls “orphans of the narrative,” either destroyed or stored away out of sight and out of mind. His quest is to keep them in view as a last testament to the fact that these people existed, preserving them as an easily accessible visual archive that tells the story of what happened—integrating an objective forensic perspective with human compassion.

More profile about the speaker
Ziyah Gafić | Speaker | TED.com

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