In One Thousand Dreams, award-winning photographer Robin Hammond hands the camera to refugees. Often reduced by the media’s toxic or well-meaning narratives, the portraits and interviews capture a different and more complex tale
Robin Hammond has spent two decades crisscrossing the developing world and telling other people’s stories. From photographing the Rohingya forced out of Myanmar and rape survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to documenting the lives of people in countries where their sexuality is illegal, his work has earned him award after award.
But for his latest project the photographer has embarked on a paradigm shift: to remove himself – and others like him – from the process entirely. Instead, as part of an in-depth exploration of the refugee experience in Europe, the stories of those featured are told by those who, arguably, know them best: other refugees.
From top left clockwise: Maryam from Afghanistan, Dolar from Benin, Anas from Syria and LK from Hong Kong
Most refugees at some point in our lives were just living. We got up, we went to work, we hated Mondays
Javier (left) from Nicaragua and Celine (right) from Cuba
Refugees are interviewed a lot but they’re almost never actually the authors themselves
From top left clockwise: Aram from Iran, Shammi from Bangladesh, Roghaia from Afghanistan and Comfort from Nigeria
Sanem (left) from Turkey and Worood from Iraq