image by
Seba Kurtis
from the series “8 years”
He now lives in the United Kingdom,
and has exhibited his work at HOST Gallery (London),
the Noorderlicht Photo Festival, and the New York Photo Festival .
source: seesaw
“an online photography magazine”
Seba Kurtis photographic oeuvre is centered on the topic of emigration
or (illegal) immigration,
or migration.
The choice of the adequate term is depending on your point of view.
It depends on how you were socialized
and if you were born in safety or not.
It’s probably not wrong to assume
that Seba Kurtis projects are deeply personal ones.
“When times were hard,
my grandparents left Europe for Argentina.
When times became hard in Argentina I left for Europe.It took 8 years to overcome the lengthy bureaucratic bullshit,
mind games and loop holes to get my legal right to stay in Europe.”
statement by
Seba Kurtis
In his projectshe is experimenting with technical mishaps to extend his photographic language.
His imagery is profoundly subjective and can´t be read without the background knowledge he is ready to offer.
The strength of his work, its subjectivity,
could be called it´s weakness,
if you demand of his photographs to be self-explanatory.
But photographs are never self-explanatory.
This we habitually tend to forget not being aware of the fact
that we never look at photographs without a context,
a setting that is giving some background to the images that we see.
When examining works of art,
we look at their form, and we look at their content.
I do like how Kurtis says what he wants to say
and I empathize with what he is actually saying.
I see the erased face, set for an erased or hidden identity,
I see the big empty blue and think of the sky above the boat people,
and I see the plane on the wall representing hopes and dreams for escape and mobility.
But I am not sure if all of this is enough.
Maybe it never will be enough.
May be nothing can be enough to tell the tale of fate,
of suffering and injustice.
