Two years ago, Aleksey was heading to the pond when he picked up an object that had fallen from a passing military convoy. He thought it was a pen, he said, until it exploded up in his hand. “My first feeling was shock and pain,” Aleksey says, “I looked down and saw the fingers were hanging from my hand. My whole life changed. I can’t chop the wood, it’s hard to tie the fishing line, and it’s hard to set the traps to catch animals. Sometimes I’m getting upset up until the moment when I break into tears.” This is Europe today. SEE THE STORY
News & Education
Maggie Steber spoke to Ben Smith on A Small Voice Podcast about changing career directions, education, Haiti, the warrior ethos, and her alter ego, “Lily LaPalma.”
Tomas van Houtryve appeared as a guest judge on SKYTV’s Master of Photography. Stay tuned this season for more guest appearances by VII photographers.
The Open Call for the VII Masterclass in Warsaw ended today. Selected participants will be notified directly, and their names will be published on the VII Masterclass webpage and VII Photo Agency’s social media accounts before the beginning of the Masterclass. Check out more upcoming workshops below!
Nichole Sobecki has been awarded silver in the “Prix de la Photographie, Paris” (P×3) “Feature Story” category for her project “A Climate for Conflict.”
“The “Prix de la Photographie, Paris” (P×3) strives to promote the appreciation of photography, to discover emerging talent, and introduce photographers from around the world to the artistic community of Paris. A selection of work from this competition is displayed in Paris and the winners are published in the P×3 Annual Book. Juried by leading editors, publishers, curators, gallery owners, consultants, creative directors, and art directors, P×3 brings the best of photography from across the globe to Paris.”
Europe’s migration crisis isn’t over — it’s just beginning. With net immigration expected to exceed 1 million per year for the next five decades and xenophobia surging, European leaders are grasping for new ways to slow the influx. So far, their efforts have included tighter rules and enforcement at home, as well as multibillion-dollar development projects and support for local militaries and governments in Africa.
This investigation was first published in Foreign Policy and received the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the New Media category.
Education
The Open Call for the VII Masterclass in Warsaw will be accepting applications now through June 14, 2018. The VII Masterclass is the most ambitious and exhaustive training program available. Aimed at developing and consolidating new talent in documentary photography and photojournalism over the course of seven months, it is only offered every other year and takes place in three sessions of four days each.
Europe’s migration crisis isn’t over — it’s just beginning. With net immigration expected to exceed 1 million per year for the next five decades and xenophobia surging, European leaders are grasping for new ways to slow the influx. So far, their efforts have included tighter rules and enforcement at home, as well as multibillion-dollar development projects and support for local militaries and governments in Africa. This investigation was first published in Foreign Policy and received the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the New Media category.
Highway to Hell
A historic smuggling hub through which as many as 13,000 migrants passed each month in 2016, Agadez has been the site of a recent crackdown on human smugglers after the E.U. struck a $635 million deal with Nigerian authorities to keep a lid on migration. Now the route across the Sahara — already among the most deadly on Earth — is more treacherous than ever.
?My Smuggler, My Savior
These smugglers are migrants’ only chance of making it safely across the Sahara. They’re also outlaws engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse with Niger’s military.
To make the 600-mile journey from Agadez, an ancient Nigerien caravan city that has grown into Africa’s most notorious human-smuggling hub, across the Sahara to Libya was to risk death at the hands of bandits, terrorists, and the elements. Then in 2015 the journey became even more perilous. “The army started hunting us,” says Adji, who at 32 had been ferrying migrants to Libya for nearly 15 years. “They are even shooting at our trucks.”
The EU-funded crackdown on Niger’s smuggling industry didn’t stop the flow of Libya-bound migrants. But it did force drivers like Adji to take new and more dangerous routes across the Sahara. Now the cost of crossing to Libya has skyrocketed, Adji says, and for the right price there will always be someone willing to go.
The Paradox of Prosperity
Europe is spending billions of dollars to jump-start Africa’s poorest economies. But that may just accelerate the exodus.? ?
Much of the money has been funneled into ambitious development projects? ?like the flagship cashew processing plant where Abdoulaye Traoré and roughly 200 other Malian laborers worked until they ran out of raw materials.? ?But the story of the Malian cashew factory — which was still sitting idle five months after it first ran out of raw materials — highlights the immense challenges that await European policymakers seeking to remake the poorest countries on Earth. It also exposes a false but largely ignored assumption: Better jobs and more income, at least in the short and medium term, don’t typically relieve migratory pressures in desperately poor countries; they increase them.
Like most of his friends, Traoré had long dreamed of migrating to Europe. Also like them, he lacked the resources to make it there. If that money suddenly appeared though, Traoré knows exactly what he would do: “I would save money and go to Europe.”
Nichole Sobecki is an American photographer and filmmaker based in Nairobi, Kenya. She aims to create photographs and films that demand consideration for the lives of those represented – their joys, challenges, and ultimately their humanity.
