Ein besseres Leben? – a better life?
Krisztián Fonyódi
October 10 - 31, 2006

Installation view

Today there is an international phenomenon in which people are forced to escape from their native country for political reasons. In the most cases they have been hunted, prosecuted, and deported. When these people arrive in their host countries, they are given the status of asylum seeker. That means that they can stay until the political situation in their native
country is normalized. What does this life of such uncertainty look like? This is the central theme of this exhibition.

In Germany I made 25 portraits of asylum seekers who had fled from countries experiencing some of the most serious political problems in the world. Accompanying the portraits is a short text in which the asylum seekers tell their stories through their newly adopted language. Together, the text and the portraits give an authentic and personal picture of the reality these people face.

Krisztián Fonyódi is a freelancer people photographer and currently a PhD student in German studies at Queen’s University. These portraits were exhibited last year in Heidelberg, Germany with funding from the European Union.