Ziyah Gafić: Everyday objects, tragic histories
Ziyah Gafić: Dagelijkse voorwerpen, tragische geschiedenissen
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
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van de genocide in Bosnië
van de slachtoffers
toothpaste and a toothbrush
en tandenborstel meebrachten,
dat zij geen idee hadden
zouden worden.
in mijn thuisland teruggevonden.
lichamen aan het opgraven
het grootste ooit ontdekt.
de Bosnische natie verwoestte,
voornamelijk niet-militairen, vermist,
gedood in de strijd.
zoals Srebenica
veroordelingen uitgesproken
en genocide.
en weloverwogen uitroeiing
religieuze of ethnische groep.
dat zij ooit bestaan hebben.
van diegenen die omkwamen
dan hun kwetsbare lichamen
en vervagende herinnering aan hen.
in talloze massagraven.
van deze collectie van objecten
die bij de moorden verdwenen.
op Europese bodem
of ongeïdentificeerd blijven.
bij zich hadden
packed in white plastic bags
in witte plastic zakken verpakt,
als forensisch instrument gebruikt
van de slachtoffers,
forensisch bewijs
very valuable forensic evidence
processen wegens oorlogmisdaden.
soms opgeroepen
te proberen te identificeren,
is erg moeilijk.
de dokters en de advocaten
weeskinderen in het verhaal.
geloof het of niet,
voorwerp te fotograferen,
kunnen doorbladeren.
aan de maatschappij teruggeven.
dan bewustwording.
en accurate herinnering
staat borg voor empathie.
items guarantee empathy.
'document zijn' zo dicht mogelijke benadert
geïdentificeerd zijn,
in hun graven
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ziyah Gafić - Photographer + storytellerTo 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.
Ziyah Gafić | Speaker | TED.com