(1) Angelica D'Ettorre
(1) Independent Photographer
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A long stint in Niger, in the Hamdallaye refugee camp, where I was teaching a theater and photography course as psychological support to women and men newly evacuated from Libyan prisons, carved the roots of the Freewater Project.
Back in Italy, my family welcomed home a Somali girl who had just arrived from Libya. She had finished the journey. She had overcome the prisons, the burns, the death, the sea, and landed in our home.
Loaded with the customs and traditions of her homeland, after five years in Italy, Asma decided to undress the Muslim culture and put on the Western one, living a strong cultural conflict but always internal, always with dignity, and always with a smile.
These images tell of her journey, her rebirth. They tell the story of her soul's conflict, but most of all, her smile.
My long experience as an actress, combined with my experience as a photographer, coupled with the African continent, and in particular the volcanic period in Niger, have punctuated the style of composition of each of the photos in the Freewater Project. The image arises from a common need between photographer and photographed, but the "model" acts by actively, rather than passively, narrating her state of mind—from the most superficial to the most intimate—so that the image can have a layered meaning that induces the viewer to a multi-layered reflection.
I focused on women and their new approach to the Western world, noting that their biggest dilemma was related to the way they dressed, and in particular, whether to continue wearing or remove the veil. To embrace Western culture or remain tied to the culture of their country.
With Asma, we chose the sea as the background for our research, understood as a free space, far from judgment and rules dictated by each society. A space in which the soul is brushed by the slow and ever-changing movements of the waters. The Mediterranean Sea represents not only a physical transition from one land to another but also, and more importantly, a spiritual transition from one culture to another. In this photographic project, the veil symbolizes the imposed and obligatory mask of every society, which is why I not only asked Muslim women to express themselves but also Western women.
Asma's Rebellion
Photographs that tell the drama of refugees, such as the one that most of all has entered our imagination—"Aylan's Death" by Nilüfer Demir—and which are part of an important document that will tell the story of our times in the future, have always provoked in me a reflection and a dilemma: "Is there a way to tell the drama of these people in a more conceptual way, provoking in the viewer a layered reflection, capable of reaching multiple emotional and cognitive levels?" The answer to my dilemma translated as follows.
Asma is inside the water: from water one is born, and she is about to be reborn. The image tells of her dream and the struggle for life. Her arms push her body into the air, into Europe, and her face, despite the feat, is weary but serene. A moment of stasis between life and death, but the bubbles from her nose tell us that life will win
Comment 1
Asma’s journey from Libya to Italy, like many refugees, is the battle between life and death. So while water naturally represents the life source from which we are born, as we are born from the womb, so too does the Mediterranean sea represent the life source of many in the daunting journey between Africa and Europe. Her portraits, complimented by the lights show the successfully story for Asma. The positioning of the light from above, similar to most renaissance paintings that show divinity, remind of the miracle of life and Asma’s journey across the sea.
As for the second phase of portraits of Italian women, it utilizes water in a different fashion. The Italian women represent not only discomfort, but suffocation and inexistence. Their faces are hidden and wrapped within a beautiful cloth; hair nor any identifying elements is visible to a spectator, insinuating how Italian culture views women.
Women are dispensable and objects within society.
To this day, women are highly objectified in Italy, which has left the country relatively behind compared to other cultures. Phase 2 shows a rebirth, yet there is no method to identify the model, as we have with Asma in Phase 1 rebirth. Even more so, in the last photo of rebirth, we see the model underwater in a position of weakness (arms flailed out, cloth wrapped tightly around her face), indicated a form of defeat. This defeat from society and Italian culture, where she must continue to participate as an object. While in the first quadrant of ‘Oppression’ we see this urge to fight and escape, when we look at the phase of ‘rebirth’ there is a calmness and stillness, as if she accepts her fate and submits to the cultural norms, leaving an ominous closing to the series about where we are as a society and the frustrations as a woman.
Comment 2