For the past eight months a group of asylum seekers have been attending weekly photography classes which has resulted in a full exhibition at the Brunswick Street Gallery.
For the past eight months a group of asylum seekers have been attending weekly photography classes which has resulted in a full exhibition at the Brunswick Street Gallery.
Organised and lead by local photographer Ginta Mebalds, the project involves a group of about eight current and former asylum seekers. Each week they attend a photography class at Brunswick’s Asylum Seeker Welcome Centre (ASCW) and afterwards are asked to photograph something that inspires them.
“There’s a lot of excitement about the exhibition,” says Ginta Mebalds, “the participants have been so excited to see their work printed and framed. And to have people fromt the wider community come along to the exhibition and appreciate their work is going to mean a lot”.
One of the group members Su (who took the picture above), an asylum seeker from Burma, says the program allows her to forget about her current life. “That is why I take a lot of pictures in the park – it is like a dream. I can forget my situation,” she says.
You can check out the exhbition at the Snapshots of Community exhibition at the Brunswick Street Gallery from April 15 to 28.
