Passengers

The Passengers project seeks to put face to those who have seen the need to migrate outside the system, analyzing the impact that this form of movement has on their identity.

On 1st August 2016, 118 people were rescued from a rubber boat drifting in the Mediterranean, 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast. One more of the hundreds of boats that have been rescued from this migratory route in the past years. Only in 2016, when historical records were beaten, 181,436 migrants were rescued safe, while 4,576 died at sea.

In an attempt to put name and face to this reality, I portrayed the 118 people who traveled on the same boat, few minutes after their rescue. Their faces, their looks, the marks on their body, their clothes or the absence of them... reflect the mood and physical state in which they were after a long journey that had already marked their lives forever.

But that would be just the beginning of this investigation project that has continued to evolve since then.

I soon understood that those people I had portrayed lacked real identity. Those were not themselves, but the result of a long journey during which their identity had been diluted in the mass, sometimes hidden by themselves for fear of the environment, stolen based on abuses and humiliations... And is that the price of traveling outside the system is too high, especially for those who pay with their lives.

During the last three years I have worked to locate the 118 passengers of that boat, today scattered throughout Europe, to understand and document their real identity, with the aim of showing that in those individuals who I had photographed in 2016, there were latent identities, which only needed a peaceful context to flourish again.

To this day, I have met 63 of them, and I have located 105. They currently live in various cities in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Malta, Holland and Switzerland. And, although their future is still uncertain, at least they have been able to return to being themselves.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Abdoulie. Senegal (1999). LEFT: Abdoulie portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Abdoulie portrayed on 29th April 2018 in Italy, where he was living at that time.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Ousman. Guinea Conakry (1996). LEFT: Ousman portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Ousman portrayed on 3rd May 2019 in Italy, where he was living at that time.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Blaise. Senegal. LEFT: Blaise portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Blaise portrayed on 25th January 2019 in Italy, where he lived at that time.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Mohamed. Senegal (2003). LEFT: Mohamed portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Mohamed portrayed on 10th February 2019 in Italy, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Malick. Gambia. (1998) LEFT: Malick portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Malick portrayed on 26th June 2019 in Italy, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Oumar. Guinea Conakry (1999). LEFT: Oumar portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Oumar portrayed on 19th January 2019 in Italy, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Mohamad. Mali (1989). LEFT: Mohamad portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Mohamad portrayed on 21st September 2019 in Paris, France, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Bacar. Senegal (1983). LEFT: Bacar portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Bacar portrayed on 18th June 2018 in Italy, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Sheku. Sierra Leone (1986). LEFT: Sheku portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Sheku portrayed on 22nd January 2019 in the center for asylum seekers in Chiaromonte, Italy, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Oumar. Senegal (1996). LEFT: Oumar portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Oumar portrayed on 25th January 2019 in Ponte-Benevento, Italy, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Walid. Guinea (1994). LEFT: Walid portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Walid portrayed on 4th April 2019 in Schermbeck, Germany, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Insa. Senegal (1999) LEFT: Insa portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Insa portrayed on 14th March 2019 in Inca, Mallorca (Spain), where he lived at that time.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Abdul. Sierra Leone (1998). LEFT: Abdul portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Abdul portrayed on 24th June 2018 in Italy, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Alpha. Guinea Conakry (1999). LEFT: Alpha portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Alpha portrayed on 8th February 2019 in Italy, where he currently lives.

© CESAR DEZFULI - Image from the Passengers photography project
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Saidou. Guinea Conakry (1992). LEFT: Saidou portrayed on 1st August 2016 on board of a rescue vessel in the Mediterranean sea. RIGHT: Saidou portrayed on 23rd June 2019 in Italy, where he currently lives.

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