Dec 9

Dec 9 Photo Journal Monday: César Dezfuli

Mediterranean Sea, 1 August 2016. Surah, from Gambia, poses for a portrait minutes after being rescued on the Mediterranean Sea, 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast by a rescue vessel provided by the NGO Jugend Rettet. The rubber boat in which he… — Mediterranean Sea, 1 August 2016. Surah, from Gambia, poses for a portrait minutes after being rescued on the Mediterranean Sea, 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast by a rescue vessel provided by the NGO Jugend Rettet. The rubber boat in which he travelled carried 118 people on board, who were transferred by the Italian Coast Guard to Sicily (Italy). © César Dezfuli

Passengers

On 1st August 2016, 118 people were rescued from a rubber boat drifting in the Mediterranean Sea, 20 nautical miles off from 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 lost their lives at sea.

But who is behind these numbers? What is the identity of the victims and survivors of this journey?

Mediterranean Sea, 1 August 2016. Alsaine, from Guinea-Conakry, poses for a portrait minutes after being rescued on the Mediterranean Sea, 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast by a rescue vessel provided by the NGO Jugend Rettet. The rubber boat i… — Mediterranean Sea, 1 August 2016. Alsaine, from Guinea-Conakry, poses for a portrait minutes after being rescued on the Mediterranean Sea, 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast by a rescue vessel provided by the NGO Jugend Rettet. The rubber boat in which he travelled carried 118 people on board, who were transferred by the Italian Coast Guard to Sicily (Italy). © César Dezfuli

In an attempt to put name and face to this reality, to humanize this tragedy, I carry out this work of documentation composed of 118 portraits of all the people who traveled on board the same boat, taken minutes after their rescue, once on board of the rescue vessel Iuventa, from the search and rescue NGO Jugend Rettet. Their faces, their looks, the marks on their body, their clothes or the absence of it... reflect the mood and physical state in which they are in a moment that has already marked their lives forever. Documenting it can serve to bring this migration reality closer to those who only observe it from a distance.

Here are the protagonist and passengers of that rescue, that one more rescue, that took place in the Mediterranean Sea on 1st August 2016.