“My first journalistic piece was on the Arab Spring, and this project had to be linked so I decided to focus on political refugees"
“How did you go about approaching them?”
“They have a drop-in session every week, I went along to that. The organiser was happy for me to partake, talk to them etc. It took a couple of weeks for them to get to know me and trust me. Even after a few weeks, I was unsure whether they would let me take their pictures, but luckily they were all very open to it.”
“What’s the one thing you learnt from the experience?”
“Not to judge people. There’s a lot of stereotypes about refugees and you think they’re all on benefits but they’re not. They don’t have enough money to feed themselves sometimes."


There is currently a photographic journalism exhibition at the Corn Exchange which is displaying the projects of 44 final year university students - Project 44. I came across some of the students last week, while they were setting up. Since I wan’t able to join their launch night, I had asked if any of the artists would be around on other days and was told yes, so I popped along this afternoon to take a look.

There were two students, huddling over a laptop, when I arrived. I explained my project and asked if one of them could pose in front of their work, Natasha was kind enough to oblige me.

Natasha’s project was something I was very much interested in, a photo journalistic piece on refugees. She explained how the idea had come from her previous written work which was focused on the Arab Spring and how this photojournalistic piece was an extension of that. It was interesting to hear her talk about her experiences of it, what she had to do to gain the confidence of the refugees and what great work the organisation was doing to assist these unfortunate people. Natasha told me she learnt as much about herself as a person, than she did about the people. I thought that was a fantastic way to describe any photography project really, I could very much relate to her.

After Natasha has settled down, (she is currently in the throws of moving house), she plans to start looking for work in the photojournalistic field with plans to travel. I wish her all the best, she is a talented photographer and will do well no doubt.


Humans of Leeds